Uncharted: Drake's Ending
by SnowingLight
Summary: Drake sets out on his latest adventure to find an artifact that can cause people to become something they aren't. He faces his biggest threat yet when Sully and Elena are captured by another terrorist organization. Will Drake be able to save the ones he loves and get this artifact before it falls into the wrong hands?
1. Chapter 1 - Holy War

UNCHARTED: Drake's Ending

**-Chapter 1-**

Holy War

Nate and Chloe had little time. The two hustled through what looked to be an abandoned church. They ran next to one another, peering through every room they came across, hoping to find what they were searching for. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and walls around them and crumbled statues of deities made it difficult for them to navigate this place. The lighting, or lack there of, added to the creepiness of this place. Only a candle here and there. As unnerving as this place was, they had to be there. After all, this is where _she_ wanted them to meet her.

When Nate and Chloe came across yet another fork in the road they brought their rushing to a halt.

"Chole," Nate began as he tried to catch his breath. "you take the left door over there and I'll go right."

Chloe nodded in agreement and began to head in, that was until Nate grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"And...try to do this quietly." he added to his previous statement.

"Really?" Chloe said with a chuckle. "Because I thought I'd pop in there singing 'Dancing Queen'."

Her sarcasm made Nate pause for a moment and look at her strangely. "'Dancing Queen'?...Really?" he said with distaste. He never cared for that song, never cared for it at all.

Chloe looked at him with an angry face. "You know bloody good and well that that song is a classic." With that she let out a scoff. "Their sound is-"

"Yeah, yeah they sound like angels." Nate cut her off. "Just be...discreet all right?"

She felt herself smile. She always thought that Nate's sarcastic demeanor was a good way to lighten a moment. "No doubt." she answered.

A moment later the two separated and kicked their corresponding doors open to search. After a few minutes the two emerged from their rooms, each having found nothing useful. Their coming out at the same time startled one another and they both let out a small scream and pulled out their pistols.

"Bollocks!" Chloe yelled, lowering her weapon.

"Jesus!" Nate exclaimed, lowering his as well. "Did you find anything?"

"Not anything _useful_ I'm afraid." She answered with a sigh.

There was still one door they hadn't checked in this place and it was dead ahead. Nate and Chloe shot one another a concerned glance when they heard muffled whimpers come from the other side of it. Their minds automatically went to the worst of possibilities.

"Stay behind me." Nate told Chloe, holding up a hand. He walked quietly up to the door and placed his ear against it. He heard the sounds from a few minutes ago once more. This was all he needed. In one swift motion the kicked the door open with his tan boots, the door breaking like the cheap wood it was. What he saw when he opened the door only made him feel worse. "Oh, God..." he said softly.

What he saw was Sully, his long time friend and only father figure he ever knew in his life, tied and gagged to a chair. Right next to him was Elena. A girl he had shared...well let's just say he'd been through a lot with her.

Sully's eyes lit up when he saw the two people he cared about there at the door to save him. Although he never doubted for a second Nate would do whatever it took to save him. He had taught him everything he knew, and did a damn good job.

Chloe bolted into the room after Nate and made her way over to Sully, untying him from his binds and patted him on the shoulder. "You all right there old man?" she said with a smirk.

Sully grunted as he stood up. "Never been better. Now Nate just save your girl and we can get out of this goddamn funhouse."

Nate just looked at Elena for a few moments. Unlike Sully, her mouth wasn't covered. The look on her face was odd. She looked smug. Nate had known Elena for five years and she was never the cocky type, if anything it was him.

"I knew you'd come for me." She said as she smiled at him.

"Yeah..." Nate said cautiously, putting his gun back in the holster. "...Of course I would." he then made his way over to her and untied the ropes around her wrists.

"Come on you two, we've got to get going. Re-enforcements will be here any second." Chloe warned them, wanting to avoid getting themselves killed.

Nate felt himself still standing there, looking at Elena. He couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, and when he had these hunches, as much as he hated it, he was usually right.

"Let's get you two out of here." He said, turning around. Just then he felt Elena pull the gun from the holster behind him. He could feel the cold barrel against his back. With nothing else to do and no more weapons on him, he slowly raised his arms.

The next thing he felt was Elena lifting up his shirt and pulling the map he was carrying from his back pocket. All that work...for nothing.

"Whoa, whoa what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Sully shouted at her.

Chloe quickly pointed her weapon at Elena, hoping that she could create a stalemate for Nate to get away.

"Drop your weapon or I pull the trigger." Elena said to Chloe.

"Son of a bitch!" Chloe cursed, not knowing what she could do at this point.

"Just do it Chloe." Nate instructed her and she did just that. She stood next to Sully, now all of their hands in the air.

Next, Elena kicked Nate hard in the back to make him join his buddies. She kept the gun pointed at the three of them every second. "Looks like the luck of the famous Nathan Drake has finally run out." she said with an evil laugh.

"I should have known." Nate said, kicking himself for getting him and the others into this mess.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?" Sully asked in anger, not to mention shock.

"You have me and what you want, just let Chloe and Sully go." Nate told her. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to get hurt because of his mistakes.

"No," Elena said with rage in her voice. "I want them to watch you die." She was drawing closer to them with each passing second.

"You don't have to do this. We can work this out." Nate told her.

"What do you have to gain from-" Chloe began.

"Shut up!" Elena screamed back at her. The others could feel her rage building.

"Elena please. I just want to-" Nate began, only to be cut off by Elena's screaming voice.

"I've had enough of your bullshit, Nate." She said with a growl and pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting Nate in the side of the stomach. He staggered backwards. Sully didn't care if she shot him too at this point. He immediately ran over to the man that is like his son.

"Oh no, no, no." He muttered softly to himself, looking over Nate's wound.

"God!" Chloe cried, she then grabbed her weapon from the floor and fired twice at Elena, who was now making her getaway since she now had what she desired. Loud blasts ran throughout the church.

Elena smiled, she knew that this was none other than the back up she had requested. "Hahaha, enjoy the ride all." she said with a wave and hopped out of a nearby window, grabbing onto a rope ladder that lead to her helicopter. And just like that...she was gone.

Chloe looked around at the church now crumbing all around them. "This whole place is coming down, we've got to get the hell out of here."

Nate's breaths were becoming ragged and his voice was shaken. "You guys habe got to...get out of here." he told the two.

"Not without you, kid. You're coming with us." Sully said without question.

"I'll just slow you down. Please..." Nate said once more.

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Sully said, lifting Nate forward, only to hear him scream in anguish upon doing so. "Chloe, do you see if the bullet went through?" he asked.

Chloe ran over to Nate's back and took a look. She felt her heart stop when she didn't see an exit point. She didn't say anything, she just shook her head.

"Goddammit." Sully cursed. He knew the bullet was stuck and the bleeding would only get worse until it was removed.

A moment later, another blast shook the room.

"You've got to get out of here...you've got to get out of here." Nate repeated. He knew he couldn't move in this condition and them staying here for him would only get them killed as well.

"What do we do?" Chloe asked in panic, looking to Sully for answers.

"I'll handle him, you go ahead and clear the way." Sully told her. Chloe nodded in agreement and ran to do just that.

Sully then thew Nate's arm around his shoulder and hoisted him up. "Come on, Nate." he said firmly. As soon as they stood, a blast rang through the room and made Nate and Sully fall back to the ground. Nate looked up to see the ceiling crumbling fast. Thinking quickly, he kicked Sully out of the room to safety. Now the path was blocked and Nate was trapped. All he cared about was Chloe and Sully were out of there.

Nate just lay there propped against a wall. He held his bloodstained left hand up and looked at his ring. He and Elena both had one. As he watched his hand shake he knew this was it. He was going to die here.

"I'm so sorry, Elena." he said in a near whisper at this point. Before he slipped into unconsciousness he heard a voice call out to him.

"Nate? Nate!" the voice cried.

Just as he focused his eyes to see who it was, everything around him went black.

XXX


	2. Chapter 2 - Pool Sharks

**- 2 -**

Pool Sharks

_(One month earlier...)_

Nathan, Sully and Chloe all had checked in at a hotel in Italy. Sully thought he had gotten a lead on the trio's latest crusade there and was bound and determined to find it. Sully was always one to get himself into...sticky situations. Women tended to be easy on the eyes for him...very easy in fact. He would go into a bar to enjoy a nice cigar and a scotch and end up shelling out thousands on the busty barmaid. It seemed that every time he had gotten his ass out of debt, he (or Nate) would find a way to get him right back in—with interest.

Sully was puffing a cigar, stroking random keys on the laptop in front of him. He wanted to find more of a lead than what he had but doing nerd work was never his strongest quality. Truth be told he was jealous watching Nate and Chloe playing pool together. He knew for a fact that as soon as he picked up a cue, he'd sweep those kids in a game in seconds flat. But he'd let them have their fun, because if he was getting where he thought he was their fun would be short-lived.

Chloe knelt over the table with her cue in hand, aiming for her shot. Nate couldn't help but stare at her perfect ass while she did so. He smirked to himself. Typical of his species.

"Please take your time. I'm loving this game." he said to her, staring at her so much at this point he wouldn't be surprised if she burst into flames.

Chloe scoffed. She was used to comments like these and to tell the truth, she loved every one. "All part of my plan to wipe the table with you, sweetheart." Still lining up her shot.

"With an ass like that, you'll do it in spades." Sully's raspy voice spoke.

"That's the beauty of it." She said back. "All right, nine-ball in the left corner pocket." she said, calling her shot. With that she hit the ball full force, the nine-ball falling beautifully into the pocket she had predicted. As the ball made it's way to the hole it also smacked against the eight-ball, giving Chloe the victory of this billiards match. She chuckled in delight. "And that's how it's done." she boasted, placing her cue on the table.

"No, no, no!" Nate protested. "That wasn't the nine-ball, it was the six." he argued.

"Oooh so we're a sore loser are we?" she laughed, running a finger along his face.

"No, I just don't like it when people cheat." he said, grabbing a ball from the green-felt table. "See _this _the-" he began, showing Chloe the ball. He was cut off when she flipped the ball over to him to show him in was in fact the six. "th-the six-ball..." he stammered. He threw the ball on the table in defeat. "Shit."

"It's okay, love." Chloe said, rubbing his back. "Don't let it sour your manhood. Next time I'll spot you two balls." she said with a wink. Nate laughed at the innuendo she made. She, like Sullivan, could make almost anything sound sleazy.

"Well I'll be a goddamn money's uncle!" Sully shouted suddenly, drawing in Nate and Chloe's attention. With that the two of them went over to him and sat at the table.

"Finally hack into _Playboy's_ security cameras?" Nate asked, he loved being snippy with Sully. It was the odd way the two of them showed affection...crazy as it sounds.

"Always a wise-ass." Sully muttered turning the black laptop over to Chloe and Nate. On the screen was a woman with poker straight reddish copper hair and bright green eyes. She was attractive but had a very menacing look about her. "This is her." he added on.

Nate took the laptop in his hands and hit a few keys to zoom in on the woman. He couldn't believe that someone that looked so innocent could be a terrorist mastermind. "This is the one? Sully, are you sure?" he asked.

Sully leaned back in his chair and took another hit from his cigar. After a moment be blew out a smog ring. "Yep. That's Adelle Bruno. Italy's top weapon supplier. Anything that has a bar-code or barrel, she can get her hands on." Sully told them.

Nate just shook his head. "And? There are all kinds of arms dealers across the board. What does she have to do with anything?"

Sully just sighed and took back his computer and clicked the keys. Once he was finished he turned the screen back to the others. On the screen was a necklace, much like the one Nate used to wear around his neck except on this one the ring was jet black.

"Wow, looks like my kind of jewelery." Chloe said, in awe of the beauty of the accessory. "Nate, Valentine's Day maybe?" she joked, elbowing him. Chloe had always loved Nate, but a long time ago he made it clear to her that his heart belonged somewhere else. However, that didn't mean she couldn't tease him now and again.

"So...I'm guessing that this Adelle girl wants this for some deep, city-annihilating-to-get-it reason, huh?" Nate asked. He had dealt with his share of terrorist before and he knew all too well that they would do whatever it took to get what they wanted, kill, maim—anything.

Sully nodded. "We don't know what the hell it does but if this broad wants it, you can bet it's for something good." he said.

"Okay, one question..." Chloe chimed in, "where is this necklace and how are we supposed to get it before this Adelle does?"

Sully groaned as he stood up and made his way to the window. He pointed at a large, lit up white building across the way. "It's in _that_ museum right there." he told them. "It was recently transported here from another locale. My guess is Bruno is going to have her men on this withing the next couple of hours."

Nate laughed in a sarcastic manner and looked at Sully like he had three heads. "Are you serious? How the hell do you think we can get it? I mean, we can't just waltz in there, take it and walk right out." he said.

"You can if you're disguised as the guards that are posted there." Sully informed him with a smirk. He walked over to a nearby closet that held two uniforms that the workers of the museum wore. The man's uniform was a crisp white shirt with blue stripes down the sides and on the pockets and black slacks. The woman's uniform had the same shirt but a black skirt as opposed to pants. Nate and Chloe observed their new attire.

"Damn, I've got to wear a skirt? Nate want to trade me?" Chloe was never the girliest of girls and she hadn't wore a skirt since preschool.

"Haha, not a chance." Nate retaliated. "And I see that there is only one man's uniform here. I guess this means that you'll be here on the sidelines, Sully?" Nate asked him smugly.

"No can do, kid." Sully answered, shaking his head. "Adelle and her men have seen my face before. I take one step in there, they'd blow my goddamn head off."

"That's how it goes, I guess." Chloe said, taking her outfit from the closet. "Shall we suit up then?" she asked Nate.

"Jesus." Nate sighed. He wondered how the hell he got himself into these situations. But if it was for the good of others...and a little cash on the side, he'd do it. He looked at the pants, then to Sully. "I'm going to need a belt."


	3. Chapter 3 - Lookalikes

**-3-**

_Lookalikes _

Nate and Chloe were up in the rafters of the museum, decked out in their patrolling attire. They were waiting for a perfect moment to drop down and begin their mission. Though neither one of them would admit it, they were nervous about getting caught. Luckily no one there had ever seen their faces and before they left, Sully had given them hats to wear to better hide their identities. Nate handed Chloe her hat and they put them on.

"You ready for this?" he asked her, adjusting the hat on his head.

"Don't you know it, cowboy." Chloe said with a wink.

"Okay, let's do this then." he answered, popping the grate off in front of him as quietly as he could. He looked down below and saw that the coast was clear. "You go first, I'll be right behind you." he told her, lowering a rope for her to climb down.

"Gotcha." she replied, slowly beginning to climb down. She dropped to the floor with barely a sound. She took a quick look around to see if it was clear for Nate to follow. "Okay, you're clear." she called to him.

"Okay..." he said, grabbing onto the rope to begin his descent. "Easy does it."

As Chloe watched Nate climb down, she saw a stray guard coming his way. "Son of a bitch." she cursed to herself. She saw that Nate was right above him.

While Nate was climbing down the rope began to snap, he dangled in mid-air for a moment, hovering above the guard. "No no no no no..." he said over and over. Just as the guard looked up Nate came crashing down on top of him, knocking him out. Nate hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop. "Shit!" he yelled, standing to his feet. "We're not getting out that way."

"Are you all right?" Chloe asked, handing his hat to him that had fallen off in all the ruckus.

"Yeah..." he answered, taking the hat from her and donning it once more. "Just going to need a good chiropractor after all this." Nate let out a sigh and looked around the room. "The necklace we need should be in one of these cases. Just take a look around." he told her.

After a few minutes Chloe came to the case that held what they needed. "I've got it." she told him.

"Good girl." Nate said with a smile, pulling out a glass cutter from his pocket. "Got the replica?" he asked her as he started to cut a circle in the glass.

"I have it right here." she answered, taking the necklace from around her neck.

Nate shot her a strange look. "You were _wearing_ it?" he asked, raising a brow.

"Why not?" she answered. "I thought it looked rather dashing on me if I do say so myself." She smiled to herself and handed the necklace over to him.

Nate just shook his head and chuckled. "I'll never understand you women." he told her. A moment later he popped the circle of glass from the case. He reached inside and took the artifact. He felt himself staring at it. It looked just like the one he lost when he took down Marlowe a year ago, save for the ring being black in color. Truthfully, he missed wearing that ring. It was passed down from, who he always thought to be his ancestor, Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s. Drake was always his idol and the ring bore his motto 'Sic Parvis Magna' which meant 'Greatness from Small Beginnings'. Words that Nate wanted to live by—always.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt what appears to be a great moment of tranquility, but we need to get our asses out of here before we're caught." Chloe warned him.

Nate snapped out of his daze. "Yeah...guess you're right." he answered, taking the replica from Chloe and putting it where the original was. He then put the real one around Chloe's neck like the fist one was. "Let's go."

"In here!" the two heard a guard call from the other side of a door.

"Crap!" Nate yelled, he and Chloe taking cover behind one of the cases. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Good thing one of us came prepared." Chloe smiled, pulling out two guns, handing one to Nate.

"You're a genius, Chloe." Nate praised her. "Now, these are bound to be Adelle's men so we have to get out of here as soon as possible." As the two hid there, a shot was fired, shattering a vase on the case in from of them to pieces.

"Good Lord, that Ms. Adelle Bruno doesn't mess around." Chloe said, clicking her gun to the ready.

"No kidding." Nate answered, looking over to her. Suddenly he noticed that the necklace was glowing a faint blue color. "Chloe..." he said slowly, pointing his gun at the necklace to show her.

Chloe looked down to she the shining charm around her neck. "What the hell?" she asked.

"I don't know..." Nate answered, looking over the case and firing a few rounds, taking out of of Bruno's guards. "Let's just—" he began and jumped when he looked back to Chloe.

"What!?" Chloe yelled in response. "You're scaring the piss out of me."

Nate was still silent for a few moments. He knew that it was none other than Chloe sitting next to him, but she didn't have the face of Chloe at all. Her face and body was a mimic of Adelle Bruno.

"Do...do you have a compact on you by any chance?" he asked her in shock.

"Of course." she answered, pulling a small, circular red compact out of her bra. Her jaw dropped when she saw that Adelle was looking back at her. "What in the bloody hell is this?" she asked in horror.

"I don't know..." he answered. "That necklace lit up a second ago...maybe that has something to do with it." he told her.

With that, Chloe quickly removed the necklace from her neck. And as soon as she did, she fazed right back into being Chloe—just as Nate had predicted. It was clear at this moment why the real Adelle wanted this artifact so badly.

"You're right." Chloe said, looking relieved to see her old face back again. "What kind of witchcraft is dwelling in this thing?" She asked, looking at the necklace in awe.

"Adelle are you in here!?" Another guard yelled out into the room. Chloe and Nate could see red beams floating throughout the room. They knew that as soon as they peaked any part of their body out, they would be shredded to pieces by them. They were pinned down. Then, suddenly, and idea struck Nate.

"Wait, wait. Chloe, put that necklace back on for a second." he told her.

"Are you mad!?" she shrieked at him. "I don't want to walk around town with a terrorist mastermind's face!" she said, thinking that Nate had finally lost his mind.

"Chloe, those are Adelle's guards and we are pinned down with massive snipers here. Now, chances are she knows that that necklace has special powers but doesn't know exactly what yet. With you looking like her you can get us out of here." he explained.

"And if they don't believe I'm here and they gun me down to nothing?" She asked in retaliation.

"Chloe, I just saw this happen before my own eyes and I still can't even believe it." he told her. It was the truth. He had never seen anything like that in his whole life, and he had seen some very odd things in his days. "If you feel like it's too dangerous I'll come out and cover you. I promise I won't let them hurt you...okay?" he told her. He would never put someone he cared about in danger unless he was certain that what he was thinking would work.

Chloe just sighed in annoyance. "Christ, why do I do these things for you." she muttered, slipping the necklace back on. Much to their surprise, nothing was happening. "Oh, that figures—it's defective." she said.

"No, maybe not. Try saying her name." Nate told her, thinking that they didn't have anything left to lose if she did.

Chloe rolled her eyes and spoke. "Adelle Bruno."

Just like that, the necklace began to illuminate once more and seconds later she was back transformed into Adelle—black suit and all.

"I just hate it when you're right." She scoffed, shaking her head, tucking the necklace inside her shirt so the guards wouldn't see that she had it.

Nate smiled, he was glad to know that he still had his knack for figuring out the impossible. "You can do this. I'm right here." he reminded her.

"Bollocks!" Chloe said in an enraged whisper and stood before all of the guards. All of the beams were aimed straight at her forehead. She simply rose her arms up. "Stand down." she said to them in a firm voice.

The guards all paused for a moment, the beams still not leaving her face.

So she thought she'd try again. "I said, stand down." she repeated.

Nate watched her from below, he was getting nervous when he didn't see the beams fade after the first time she threatened them. Every second that ticked off felt like hours. He then felt a wave of relief when he saw the beams disappear and the guards pull back. Chloe sighed in relief as well.

"Ms. Bruno...what are you doing here? You told us and us alone to come and get the artifact." One of the bulky guards asked, walking forward.

Chloe would have to wing this, she just hoped she'd wing it right. "That was before I realized that this mission may be to important for all of the...incompetence my army shares." she said, speaking now in an Italian accent. She walked over to the case that held the fake necklace and pulled it out. "Do I hear any complaints?" she asked smugly.

"N-no..." the guard answered, he and the others too afraid to argue back with the head honcho.

"Go back to our staging grounds for now." she said, tossing the necklace to the guard. "Take care of this. I'll meet you back there in a little while. I have a few more things to take care of." Chloe ordered them. When she saw them leaving the room a bit too slowly, she thought she'd light a fire under them. "Don't make me repeat myself." she said coldly. Seconds later, the room was emptied. "It's clear." she told Nate.

Nate stood and looked around the room to confirm her words. "Thank God." he sighed. "That was a little too close."

Chloe ripped the necklace off of her as fast as she could, reverting back to her beautiful brunette self. "I will never get bloody used to that..." she said in frustration.

Nate walked over to her and patted her back. "Hopefully you won't have to. You did a great job. You really saved our asses." he told her proudly.

"I don't know about you but I'm more than ready to get the hell out of here." She told him, handing him the necklace, him slipping it into his pocket.

"Let's just get this back to Sully and see what he has to say about this." Nate said, wanting to get out of here just as badly as she did at this point. He helped Chloe out of the nearby window. They were going to use the fire escape to get to safety. After Chloe was already climbing down he pulled the necklace back out of his pocket and looked at it for a moment. "What the hell was that..." he said to himself.


	4. Chapter 4 - Face Value

**-4-**

Face Value

"You've got to be goddamn kidding me!" Sully exclaimed upon hearing about Nate and Chloe's latest excursion with the necklace. He thought they had gone off their rockers to have a story as insane as this. I mean, a necklace that transforms a person's appearance when they say that person's name? That's more like something that had come out of a sci-fi book he had read in his younger days.

"Sully, we're dead serious, I saw it happen right in front of my eyes." Nate told him. Sully could always tell when Nate was lying, right from the get-go.

Chloe nodded. "He's telling the truth, Victor. Take it from the one who turned into the bloody woman herself."

Sully leaned back in his wooden chair in the hotel and pulled a cigar, lighter and cutter from his shirt pocket. He let out a sigh as he clipped the end off his cigar and blazed it up. "Just when you think these damn scientists have run out of crazy shit..." he muttered.

"Sully, I don't think it's as simple as all that." Nate told him.

"You mean, you think it's tied into Shambala?" Sully asked, hoping he never had to set foot back into that demon-infested place. He had seen enough monsters there to last three lifetimes.

"It's the only logical answer." Chloe told him.

"I guess you're right." Sully answered. "Call me old-fashioned but I'm going to need some proof about all this. I want to see it with my own eyes."

Chloe cringed at these words. She knew that she was going to have to be the demonstrator for this little experiment. But she thought this would (hopefully) be the last time she would have to wear the cursed thing. She groaned and took the necklace from the table, standing. "All right. Who should I magically turn into?" she asked. "Please, just anyone but that ridiculous woman." she asked.

Nate began to speak but Sully cut him off. "Elena Fisher." he said. This made Nate pause and shoot a look at Sully. He couldn't believe that out of all the names in the world he would pick her.

Chloe looked at Nate for approval. "Should I...?" she asked in concern for his feelings.

Nate just looked hurt for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah...yeah go ahead." he answered.

"...Okay." Chloe said hesitantly. "Elena...Fisher."

A second later the necklace lit up and began to transform Chloe. Once it was finished, there Elena stood...at least a shell of her that it. Nate couldn't believe his eyes. He walked over to her and gazed deep into her eyes. Nate looked at Chloe the way she always wished he would. But, sadly those eyes were for another. Nate lifted a hand and gently stroked her cheek.

"Nate..." Sully said, walking over to him and patting him on the shoulder. "You need to just call her."

Nate snapped his hand back and turned away. "No, no Sully I just can't do that." He rubbed his hands over his face in defeat. "Take the necklace off, Chloe." he asked of her, and shot Sully an angry look. "There's your proof." he said, grabbing his jacket and storming out of the room.

Chloe just walked over to Sully, concerned about Nate. "Victor, what happened with the pair of them?" she asked. She had know the two of them for years but was away for awhile when all of this between them happened. Once she got around to seeing Nate again he never wanted to mention what happened, or even talk about it. Whatever it was she knew it was bad because Nate and Elena were head over heels for each other last time she saw them.

Sully exhaled sharpy before he told her. "Nate and Elena were supposed to get married, had a date set, the place, the whole nine yards. But the day of the wedding comes, and Nate doesn't show up. Called me up and told me to take him somewhere far away." he explained to her.

"What?" Chloe asked in utter shock. "Why would he ever do something like that? It's not like Nate to dick someone over that he cares about, much less wanted to marry. Nate wouldn't do a bastard thing like that if he had something as minor as cold feet. Something more had to be going on there." she said. She refused to believe that Nate was that kind of guy. Sure, he is a sarcastic sonofabitch when he wanted to be, but he also was the type that did whatever he could to do the right thing and make the ones he cared about happy in the end—no matter what it took.

"Chloe, it's not as simple as all-" he began but was cut off by Chloe.

"Please, just cut the bullshit!" she shouted, losing her temper. After she cooled down a moment she sighed. "Nate chose her...okay. I know that. As much as it pained me at the time, I've gotten over it. But what helped me was knowing that he was certain that he made the right choice. He wouldn't shatter our hearts for noting. So please, Victor...I deserve to know what happened with them."

Sully could never turn down a lady, especially when they played the straight-shooter card. He had always liked Chloe and thought she was a great person to have in their corner. Deep down, he knew that she was right. She did deserve to know why Nate and Elena fell apart the way they did.

"All right, all right." he finally submitted. "You've twisted my arm. I'll tell you the whole story. But you have got to promise me that this will never come out that I told you." he warned her. The last thing he wanted was for Nate to be more angry at him than he already was. Sure, making Chloe seemed like a cruel thing to do at the time, but he, like every other plan he's ever had, had good reason behind it. Even if Nate didn't know what it was at the time.

"My lips are sealed." She replied.

Sully grinned. "And it's a damn shame too." he said with a wink.

"You old bastard." she laughed.


	5. Chapter 5 - Wedding Woes

**-5-**

Wedding Woes

Nate was still feeling angry, he needed some time alone. He walked down the streets of Italy deep in thought. Although he knew he had to stay out of the line of sight as much as he could, just in case someone had caught a glimpse of his face on he and Chloe's mission. The dark streets seemed empty for the most part, which made him feel a little better. The last thing he needed was some idiot opening fire on him right now. He couldn't shake what Sully had said to him...

"Nate...just call her."

How could he call her? Sully knew full well everything that had went down between them and a phone call couldn't possibly undo the pain he had caused her. Right now, he'd rather be standing face to face with Adelle Bruno herself than confront Elena. He would be lying if he said that he didn't still love her. She was the only one that could see right through him and he liked that. He didn't really show love in the traditional way. He had his own..."Nate" way of doing so.

But he knew that there was no way that she could still be in love with him after what he had done to her on their wedding day. He didn't know if she would ever forgive him, and honestly, he wouldn't blame her if she didn't. Leaving her at the altar like that, despite there being a good reason for it, was a jackass thing to do to her. Elena probably thought that he just chickened out at the thought of marriage and didn't want to settle down, but that wasn't it in the slightest.

A few years ago he, Elena and Chloe were all trying to track down this psycho named Lazaevic. He was the psycho to end all psychos. He sought the Cintamani Stone to absorb it's foreign powers and become an invincible god among men—and nearly succeeded at that. Much to his surprise he was able to take him down before it got to that point. He had lost, what he thought to be, a good friend in all of that. Harry Flynn. He had sold Nate out a while ago, causing him to rot in prison for three months before Sully and Chloe were able to spring him.

After a while, when Lazarevic was finally done using him as a minion, he killed Flynn. But not before he tried to kill the three of them with a grenade himself. Luckily, Nate and Chloe were able to escape the blast, but that wasn't the case for Elena. She was badly injured from the blast and was half-dead. Nate never remembered being so scared in his entire life. Thinking that she was going do die was worse than any pain he had felt from his line of work. If he had lost her...he didn't know what he'd do with himself.

So, why after all that did he decide to leave her on the most important day of her life? Well, that had happened a few years ago was all tied into that. When all of those events happened to her, it dawned on him how dangerous his job really was. He didn't mind the danger, this had been his career all of his life. But Elena, she didn't ask for this. She is just a journalist who wanted to have her own show and investigate all kinds of stories. Gun battles and terrorist factions were not anything she needed to be apart of. Nate had gotten her into that kind of life, and although she could hold her own against the assholes, this kind of life was far too dangerous. Nate knew all too well that if anything were to happen to her, like the grenade explosion, would be all his fault. She wanted to come through for him as much as he wanted to for her. So a year ago he gave her a ring to wear to show that he wanted no one other than her.

The day of the wedding all of this hit Nate like a ton of bricks. He felt himself panic. He can't stop doing what he did, he was the only one that could decipher certain matters and if he stopped, that could mean the lives of thousands of innocent people. Terrorists never took a holiday and as long as he was alive, he'd do all he could to stop them. Nate looked at himself in his tux in the mirror a few minutes before the wedding was about to start and all of the horror and danger of his life flashed through his mind. If he married her, he knew that something bad was going to happen to her. The bad guys loved to use loved ones to apply pressure to get what they wanted. There was no doubt in his mind that they wouldn't hesitate to use her to get to him.

All to clearly, he caught a glimpse in his mind of her grave. 'Elena Drake' and him standing at the site with flowers. After that, he felt himself start to panic and become short of breath. He couldn't end Elena's life before it really even began. He then peered out of his dressing room and saw Sully sitting in one of the pews in the church. It was going to be a small wedding, just Sullivan, Chloe, and Cutter.

"Sully." he whispered out to him and waved him forward.

A second later, Sully was in the room and Nate closed the door quickly.

"What the hell is going on, Kid? You know there's a wedding out there waiting for your ass." he said.

Nate paced back and forth. "I know. I know, Sully." he said nervously.

Sully could tell by Nate's panicky disposition that something was going on. "You all right? You aren't getting a case of cold feet are you?" he asked.

"No, I'm not all right. I can't do this." he said, sitting in a nearby chair, running his fingers through his hair.

"Why the hell not?" Sully asked. He couldn't believe that these words were coming out of Nate's mouth. Marrying Elena was all he could think or talk about for months.

"My job..." Nate began but corrected himself. "..._I_ put her in danger. If I marry her...she's not bound to live long." he said sadly.

"Weren't you the one that told me five years ago that she could hold her own out there? I mean the girl has proven time and time again that she can take care of herself." Sully reminded him.

"I know she's tough, Sully. But with me, it's only a matter of time before one wrong move is made and her life is over." Nate said. "I'd rather her be sad for a while than..." he trailed off.

Sully sighed. He couldn't argue with Nate. He knew that he had good points. He had known Nate for twenty years and also knew that once he had made up his mind on something, an entire army couldn't deter him from it. "Okay, okay. What do you want me to do?" he asked, ready to do whatever Nate needed. He wasn't stupid, he knew this failed wedding would be just as hard on him as it would be on Elena.

"Just...take me somewhere far away. We can go on your jet. I just want to get out of here and get this over with as fast as I can." he answered. He couldn't feel more like shit doing this to he, he loved her more than he ever loved anyone but doing a clean break cutting him out of her life was what was best for her, even if she didn't see it yet.

"No problem." he answered. "But you have got to be positive this is what you want, because once we get on that plane, it's all over." he warned him.

Nate paused for a moment with sad eyes, but soon shook his regrets away. "Yes...I'm positive. Let's just get out of here."

Sully nodded in agreement and the two were out of there a few minutes later. Nate wasn't sure where Sully was taking him but he really didn't care. He just wanted away from everything. He didn't speak a word on the entire plane ride.

After remembering all of this Nate slowed his walking pace. He stopped and rested against the side of a building. He sighed sadly and rested his head against the brick. He then pulled something from his jean pocket. It was his wedding band. The one that he and Elena had for one another before they got married. He slipped it on his left ring finger and looked at it for a while. He secretly wished that it meant what it symbolized. Suddenly, he heard his cell phone ring. He thought for sure it was Sully calling to apologize for a little while ago.

"Yeah, took you long enough." Nate said, answering the phone.

"Nathan Drake?" A cold, woman's voice spoke through the phone.

Nate was stunned for a moment and didn't know how to respond. "What? Who is this?" he asked the voice.

"I want the ring." the voice said simply.

"Ring? I don't-" he began.

"Don't play coy with me Mr. Drake." the voice said firmly. "I know the one my ignorant soldiers brought me was a shitty replica. I want the real one." she said, her voice growing more icy with each second.

With those words it dawned on Nate who this person was. "Adelle?" he said in fear.

"Bring the ring to the docks after hours." she demanded.

Nate just scoffed. "Why the hell would I want to help a bitch like you?" he asked her.

The next voice Nate heard over the phone was Elena. "Nate...I...got myself...captured." she said slowly, he voice sounding more frightened than he ever remembered.

"Elena...?" he said in concern. He couldn't believe what was happening.

"I'd think that would be enough incentive for you to give me what I want." Adelle's voice returned. "You have two hours."

Nate growled to himself. "If you hurt her-"

"Two hours, Drake." Adelle said once more, then the next sound Nate heard was the line going dead.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Transfer

**-6-**

**The Transer**

The night was late. The moon had been in the sky for a few hours now, and was going to be there for a few more. Being there at the docks and away from the city at large, stars we able to be seen sprinkled across the sky. The air was cold and fitting the ominous feel of this place. The faint sound of the creaky boats was heard, along with that, the footsteps of one of Adelle's cronies was heard stomping around the dock.

From the fog, out walked Adelle and one of her guards with a tight grip on his prisoner—Elena. Adelle knew all too well that this girl was all she needed to get what she wanted from Drake. She took a quick scan around the area to see if who she wanted had made it there yet. Normally, she wouldn't have even came to this exchange herself, but given the worth and power of this artifact she wanted, she wasn't going to take any chances.

After a few minutes, she expected the other guard to come back with a status report, and when he didn't she knew something was going on.

"Do you think he chickened out?" the guard holding Elena asked. He was in a dark green heavy coat and a black ski mask, holding a cocked and loaded AK-47. His bright, blond hair peeked out from the bottom of the mask.

"I hope he went far away from here instead of giving a witch like you what she wanted." Elena sneered, struggling to release the man's grip.

Adelle just said nothing and sidled over to her. In one swift motion, she back handed Elena across the face to shut her up. She was satisfied to hear Elena shriek as she did so. That would shut her up for a bit. The redhead then turned her attention over to the guard.

"Go and see what the problem is." she ordered him. "And for your sake you'd better hope that it isn't anything."

The look on the guard's face was conflicted. He gave Adelle a suspicious look after she hit Elena so hard. He knew that if he made one wrong move he would be killed. Working with her was better than working against her, so he released Elena and went to go find his partner.

As he walked away, Adelle pulled out a Wes and held it in Elena's face. "Don't even think about trying anything unless you want a bullet in your brain." At her words, Elena felt breathless and did as she was told.

After a few seconds, the two armed guards came back without a hitch.

"Where the hell were you, Rhodes?" Adelle asked, still enraged that one of her men would do something so ridiculous.

"My apologies, ma'am. I thought I saw Drake over on one of the boats that are docked. I'll...be more careful next time." Rhodes answered, scratching his head. He himself didn't want to get his head blown off by Adelle.

Adelle then turned her attention to the other guard. "What about you, Vergil? See anything that would actually make you assholes _useful_?"

"We'll keep an eye out for anything and everything." he answered. "I'll make sure we're more careful."

"Rhodes, you hold onto the girl. I'm sure you can handle a delicate flower like her." she said, pushing Elena over to him.

"Yeah, but the question is can he handle a burly flower like _me_?" A familiar voice said out of nowhere. It was then that Drake emerged from the fog, a gun in each hand.

Adelle just smirked evilly. She approached him slowly, hearing Vergil and Rhodes ready they're weapons if he decided to be a hero. "Mr. Drake...I trust you have what I want...seeing as how I have something you yourself want." she said with arrogance, extending a hand to display Rhodes pointing his AK at Elena.

"You do drive a hard bargain, missy." Drake replied, smirking back at her, holding the necklace up that dangled from his neck. "Just to recap, you hurt the girl, I hurt this."

Adelle just laughed at his attempt to intimidate her. "Thanks for laugh, Drake. I sure needed it. Vergil..." she said, turning her eyes to him. "Go and ready the boat. I have a feeling this transaction will be a quick one." she stated, aiming her eyes back at Drake.

"Yes, Ma'am." Vergil answered with a nod, hurrying to his new post.

"Appreciate it. I prefer more intimate gatherings myself." Drake joked at her.

While the guns were doing all their negotiating, Elena noticed that the grip on her was fairly loosened. It wasn't enough for her to make an attempt at escape, but at least her circulation wasn't being cut off anymore. She looked up at Rhodes. All she could see was his eyes due to the ski cap but something seemed kinder. Once she realized what was going on, her eyes widened and let out a faint gasp. The man looking back at her shook his head to indicate her not to make any reactions. She nodded shakily back at him.

"Come on, Adelle." Drake yelled to her. "I've got places to save and I'm sure you have some children to make cry, so let's get a move on here."

"First, the necklace." she said to him, holding out her hand.

"Come and get it." he retaliated.

"Rhodes-" Adelle began only to be cut off.

"No, no, no little red. Rhodes is holding my end of the bargain, and frankly I trust him a lot more than I trust you." he told her.

"Fine." she answered coldly. She walked up to Drake and ripped the necklace from his neck. She then heard a gun click behind her. Rhodes was now aiming his AK at her. "Rhodes! What the hell are you-" she said, turning back to Drake only to see Sullivan standing in front of her.

"Hey, sweet cheeks." he said with a wink. Taking Elena over to his side of the dock.

Adelle was still in shock as to what was going on. "Rhodes, what is this!?" she yelled.

"I'm sorry—Rhodes is out of commission right now." the man before her said, ripping the mask off of his face. It was none other than Nathan Drake. "I'm taking the girl _and_ the necklace." he said in firm voice, tearing the necklace from her hands."

Drake was stunned when he heard Adelle burst out in laughter. "Hahaha, oh Mr. Drake, you must really think you're quite the smart one, don't you?" she asked.

"I have my moments." Drake answered proudly.

"I'll admit you have your merits, but I want you to remember something." she began.

"And what is that pray tell?" he asked in response.

"You won't prevail over me." she said in a hiss. As soon as her words ended, Drake felt something like that of a needle hit him in the shoulder. He looked over to see a tiny dart sticking out of his arm. All of a sudden he felt dizzy and unable to stand.

"Nate!?" Elena cried. "What the hell did you do to him!?" she screamed at Adelle.

She and Sully wanted to move over to him but an army of about nine of he men appeared off of a boat in front of them.

"We need to get our asses the hell out of here." Sully said, trying to see if there as any means to escape. Suffice to say...there wasn't.

Adelle watched Drake crumple to the ground like a piece of paper. He was convulsing slightly and felt his consciousness slipping away.

"Don't worry, Ms. Fisher. Oh, it is _Ms._ isn't it? Your would-be husband will be fine...just unable to move for while." Adelle said, kneeling beside him and taking the necklace from his limp hand. "Thanks for playing Mr. Drake. Unfortunately in this round, you lose." she said smugly, taking Sully and Elena as her prisoners now.

All Drake could do was watch as two of the people he loved were strong-armed onto a boat to God-Knows-Where. He didn't see it for long, because he was blacked out a few seconds later.


	7. Chapter 7 - Return Harmony Home

**-7-**

**Return Harmony Home**

Drake awoke to a cool rag being placed on his head. He felt somewhat soothed by this and it was a nice distraction to the heaviness and pain the rest of his body felt. He felt like he had been hit by a truck...and a plane...and a train. As he opened his eyes he saw Chloe over him back in their hotel room.

"...Chloe?" he said weakly to her.

"Oh, thank God you're finally awake!" she cried in relief. She hugged him tightly.

Drake looked to the ceiling and then back to Chloe. "What the...hell happened to me?" he asked, unaware as to how he had gotten into this position.

Chloe pulled over a wooden chair next to her. "Well..." she began as she sat. "You and Victor were carrying out the plan we had devised earlier to get Elena and the artifact in entirety, but...some things went awry." she told him.

Drake felt his heart drop. Things were coming back to him and it wasn't good. He remembered that Elena and Sully were taken hostage by Adelle and her men, as well as the necklace. Although he already knew the answer to his next question, he had to ask it anyway.

"So...where are they now?"

Chloe just sighed and shook her head sadly. "I...don't know." she answered after a few moments.

"Son of a bitch." Drake cursed to himself, covering his face with his hands. "So, Red has everything. Everything."

"Well..."Chloe said and took the rag from Drake's head and dipped it in the bowl of cool water that lay next to her. Then replaced it on his head. "maybe not everything." she continued.

Drake's eyes zoned in on her hearing these words. "What do you mean?"

Chloe stood and grabbed her laptop from a table across the room. After a few keystrokes and sitting back in her chair, she turned the screen towards him.

Drake sat up when he saw what was on the screen. Although he wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it was significant. "Chloe...what is this?" he asked.

The screen showed a statue of a large bust. The man it resembled was Sir Francis Drake himself. The stone had arms jutting out of the sides. This statue looked so realistic it was almost as if it was Sir Francis reincarnated.

"The ring you used to wear around your neck, the one of Sir Francis, was apparently part of a set. It wasn't just the one ring, there was a second—the one Adelle took from you. Legends say if one wears both of the rings it will grant them unbelievable powers." Chloe explained to him.

Drake took a beat to take in what she was saying. "But..the ring we stole from the museum had more than enough power already, and the one I used to wear didn't seem to do anything. If you combine both of them, what could possibly happen?"

"That's the million dollar question, mate. I find it hard to believe that one ring has power and the other one doesn't. The one you had before must have had some sort of power that we just didn't know about." she answered.

"I...wore that necklace for twenty years and I didn't ever have any power." he told her. He couldn't think that he had something that righteous for so many years and didn't crack the code of it. "Where is this statue, Chloe?" he asked her.

"I was hoping you could tell me." she said. "I've been researching this thing the entire time you were out and I keep coming up dry. Everything I find leads to a dead end."

Drake let out a hard sigh. "Was there anything about the ring that could give us some sort of clue?" he asked.

Chloe pulled a piece of paper from her tight jean pocket. "All I wrote down was the inscription on the ring." she said, handing the piece of paper to Drake.

The words on the piece of paper were in Greek, luckily Drake knew that language well. "Nostos eirēnē..." he read aloud.

"And what the hell is that supposed to bloody mean?" she asked in frustration.

"It's Greek." Nate told her. "It means, 'Return harmony home."

"Do you think that's why Sir Francis had the rings separated all these years? To bring peace from them not being brought together?" she asked.

"Yes, exactly." he said, feeling he was getting closer to the answer he needed.

"Well, that's all well and good but what good does that saying do to show us where Sir Francis held his statue?" Chloe asked him. She failed to see how any of this had any significance to their mission.

Drake turned the paper over to see if there was anything else he could use as a clue. He eyes fixated on the writing beneath the saying on the little scrap of paper. "Was this also on the ring? The numbers 60 and nine?" he asked, looking to her.

"I _have_ always had a thing for that number..." she said with a wink. "But, yes, it was on the ring, right after the saying."

Drake was onto something, he just had to concentrate. He hopped up from the bed and began to pace around the room deep in thought. " Nostos eirēnē...60...and nine..." he muttered to himself over and over.

Suddenly, he came to a deep hault. "Wait...Chloe that's it! They're coordinates!" he exclaimed, proud of his discovery.

Chloe just raised a brow at him. "And how the hell do you figure that? I can see the numbers bearing some sort of significance but where to?" she asked, thinking Nate was finally losing what was left of his mind.

"Nostos eirēnē." he repeated to her. "N and E. Meaning North and East. The numbers are the latitude and longitude." he then bolted back over to the laptop to see where exactly these coordinates led to. "This shows the statue is in...Norway." he said.

Chloe knew without a doubt that that was going to be their next stop. If they were able to make some sense of the carvings on that ring, they knew it was only a matter of time before Adelle connected the dots, so they had to make a break for it.

Chloe grinned, knowing they had another adventure in store. "So when do we leave?" she asked.

Drake smiled back at her. "How fast can you pack?"


	8. Chapter 8 - Sadness on the Sea

**-8-**

**Sadness on the Sea**

Sully and Elena were trapped in a small room with one another, unarmed at that. All they knew was they were on a boat on their way to...who the hell knows. The two remained quiet to one another, uncomfortable being with each other after all that had happened. All they would exchange is awkward glances every now and again. The two didn't even sit close to one another. Sully sat on the single cot that was in this ship cell, and Elena stood with her arms folded gazing out the bullet-proof circular window in front of her. Nothing she saw was that of note. Just endless blue and the occasional seagull.

A few hours into this excursion, a guard came up to the barred door with a single tray of food. "Dinner for one—for two." he snickered, sliding the food under the free space of the door. Neither of the prisoners budged.

"Far be it from me to eat anything you bastards give us." Elena said coldly, never turning away from the window.

"I agree with the girl." Sully added. "Wouldn't put it past you asshole to poison that shit you call food, although you probably wouldn't have to do much to it by the looks."

"Suit yourself." the guard answered, resting his AK over his shoulder. "If the two of you faint from hunger—makes my job that much easier." And with that, he left the room, the heavy door banging closed behind him.

Sully took a look at the tray. He didn't want to admit it, but he was getting hungry, but he'd starve to death before he ever touched slop like that. It looked to be some sort of meat-like substance and rice, but who knows what it really was. The only thing he did grab was a can of soda that was sealed shut.

"Couldn't do much to this." he said, popping the top open. "Want any?" he asked Elena.

"No, I'm good." she answered, still sounding as cold as she did with the guard. As far as she was concerned, they weren't really any different. All they did was hurt people—didn't matter if it was physical or emotional.

Sully sighed. He knew she had every right in the world to hate both him and Nate. "You're still really upset aren't you?" he asked.

Elena just turned to him with an angry look. "Well, what the hell did you expect!?" she asked loudly.

"Heya, calm down there, you're going to scare the guards barking like that." he warned her.

...And just like that, he made the situation worse.

Elena just shook her head, feeling herself getting misty. So she just turned her gazed back at the sea, hoping that Sully wouldn't see her tears.

"...I'm sorry." he said, after a few moment of uncomfortable silence. "What happened to you...it wasn't right." he admitted, seeing her shoulders release a bit. "What Nate did was a shitty thing to do, but his reasons for doing it were solid. Even though he did, the last thing he wanted to ever do was hurt you."

"I...find that hard to believe." she said softly, wiping a single tear from her eye before it was seen. "Nate has always been smooth with the ladies—he even has a history with Chloe. I was just another notch on his dashboard."

"Now, now right there you just described myself more than Nate. Sure, the kid has one hell of a sex drive but despite all that, you weren't just another statistic to him. No matter what your hurt feelings are making you think." he told her. If only he could tell her why Nate did what he did, then she would understand. But he had made a promise to him, and if he didn't want to let her know, he had no right to change that.

If Elena knew Nate's true feelings of why he left on their wedding day, then she would forgive him. That's just the kind of person she is. If she were to forgive him and get back together with him, then she would be doomed to a life of danger. Even now, Nate felt that she was in this mess because of him. People—powerful people—wanted to take him down, and going through the woman he loved more than life itself wasn't anything to them.

Elena just remained silent. She didn't know what to say. She wanted to believe so bad that what Sully was saying was the truth, but believing was something she didn't do anymore. Too much had happened.

"Let's just...change the subject. Please." she asked of him. "Instead, just tell me what they hell happened back at the docks. How was Nate in front of me and behind me at the same time?"

Sully took a sip of his soda. "You mean...they didn't tell you anything?"

"Are you kidding?" she said with a scoff. "I'm just the ditz prisoner that they use for negotiation purposes."

Sully just chuckled lightly. "Okay, you got me there." he admitted. "Okay...here's the story." From there, Sully proceeded to tell Elena the whole story, from the very beginning. About the necklace, and all the evil powers it held inside it. Elena couldn't believe what her ears were hearing. She would just think that the old man had finally went senile if she hadn't see then the work of that necklace right in front of her face. She wished that this was all just a nightmare, starting from the hell that was their wedding day, and that she'd wake up any moment.

"This is all so crazy." she said, grabbing her hair. "This all seems endless. Why would you guys ever want to be in this line of work?" she asked.

Her words make Sully confirm that he did the right thing not telling her why Nate did what he did. She made it clear that the life of a fortune hunter was just took much for her. "Well, Nate and I got used to crazy a long time ago. Surprisingly, you get a little used to it."

"Leave it to you to say that." She said to him.

XXX

Nate and Chloe were high above the ground in a rickety jet they had stolen. They knew that in terms of time they had the advantage on Adelle, but they didn't want to waste a second. They were going to get Elena and they necklace back no matter what it took. Nate piloted the jet with ease, this wasn't the first time he had to fly an aircraft, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

"So, Chloe, do you remember the plan?" he asked her.

"No doubt." Chloe said with a wink, pulling out her cell phone and dialing a number. After a few rings, she finally heard a voice on the other side. "Adelle I presume?" she said.

"Indeed." Adelle answered. "And I'm assuming you're Mr. Drake's little lapdog, correct?"

"Not anymore." Chloe lied, the tone in her voice was so convincing that Nate was even starting to believe her. "I have a little proposition for you, assuming you can trust me that it. But I assure you, it is very much worth your while."

"I'm all ears." Adelle answered, although she didn't trust Chloe in the slightest, she wanted to know what she had up he sleeve, if anything else she would end up with what she wanted whether she was legit or not.

"There's a statue that is said to multiply the power of the ring you have. That power I'm don't have a bloody clue, but all the same, I thought you would have some interest in it." Chloe went on, inside she felt nervous that she was going to screw this up somehow, but it didn't come through in her voice in the slightest.

"Where is it?" Adelle asked, her quickness in her reply showed how eager she was to jump on this offer.

"I have the map with the destination marked, I'll give it to you, providing you can pay me the right price." Chloe replied.

"Name your terms." Adelle told her.

"Meet me in the ruins of Shambhala. There's an abandoned church there where we can meet up. No one has been there in quite a while. Bring the girl and the old man. I have some business that I want to take care of with them." Chloe explained.

"What business is that?" Adelle snapped back.

"None of yours." Chloe retaliated.

"Ms. Frazer, do you really expect me to believe any of this? Drake has had you in his back pocket for years now has he not?" Adelle said.

Chloe felt her heart sink a little. Her sudden change in disposition made Nate look over to her. "What?" he asked her in a soft and gentle voice.

Chloe just swallowed hard before she answered. "Yes." she admitted. She heard Adelle laugh heartily over the line, which made her feel that much worse. "That's why I want to get him back. I want to make him pay for all the pain he's caused me." In a way, her words felt a little true. Although she would never want to hurt Nate, deep inside she felt some resentment for what he did to her—and Elena for that matter. Sound reason or not, it still felt like her heart was shattered into pieces.

"It's good to know that we have something in common, Ms. Frazer. We both want to make that son of a bitch suffer. I'd be a fool to pass up a chance like that. But if you are trying to pull something on me, I won't hesitate to kill you both." Adelle warned her.

Chloe paused a moment before she spoke again, all of this was making her nervous. Eve though she had hard feelings to Nate sometimes, she certainly didn't want him to be killed. Sully or Elena for that matter either. She would just have to pray that Nate knew what he was doing. "So do we have a deal?" she asked.

Adelle just laughed eerily once more. "Of course. See you there." she said. "Oh, and bring Mr. Drake with you." she added.

Chloe just looked to Nate with shaky eyes. "Done."


	9. Chapter 9 - Holy War

**-Chapter 9-**

Holy War

Nate and Chloe had little time. The two hustled through what looked to be an abandoned church. They ran next to one another, peering through every room they came across, hoping to find what they were searching for. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and walls around them and crumbled statues of deities made it difficult for them to navigate this place. The lighting, or lack there of, added to the creepiness of this place. Only a candle here and there. As unnerving as this place was, they had to be there. After all, this is where _she_ wanted them to meet her.

When Nate and Chloe came across yet another fork in the road they brought their rushing to a halt.

"Chole," Nate began as he tried to catch his breath. "you take the left door over there and I'll go right."

Chloe nodded in agreement and began to head in, that was until Nate grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"And...try to do this quietly." he added to his previous statement.

"Really?" Chloe said with a chuckle. "Because I thought I'd pop in there singing 'Dancing Queen'."

Her sarcasm made Nate pause for a moment and look at her strangely. "'Dancing Queen'?...Really?" he said with distaste. He never cared for that song, never cared for it at all.

Chloe looked at him with an angry face. "You know bloody good and well that that song is a classic." With that she let out a scoff. "Their sound is-"

"Yeah, yeah they sound like angels." Nate cut her off. "Just be...discreet all right?"

She felt herself smile. She always thought that Nate's sarcastic demeanor was a good way to lighten a moment. "No doubt." she answered.

A moment later the two separated and kicked their corresponding doors open to search. After a few minutes the two emerged from their rooms, each having found nothing useful. Their coming out at the same time startled one another and they both let out a small scream and pulled out their pistols.

"Bollocks!" Chloe yelled, lowering her weapon.

"Jesus!" Nate exclaimed, lowering his as well. "Did you find anything?"

"Not anything _useful_ I'm afraid." She answered with a sigh.

There was still one door they hadn't checked in this place and it was dead ahead. Nate and Chloe shot one another a concerned glance when they heard muffled whimpers come from the other side of it. Their minds automatically went to the worst of possibilities.

"Stay behind me." Nate told Chloe, holding up a hand. He walked quietly up to the door and placed his ear against it. He heard the sounds from a few minutes ago once more. This was all he needed. In one swift motion the kicked the door open with his tan boots, the door breaking like the cheap wood it was. What he saw when he opened the door only made him feel worse. "Oh, God..." he said softly.

What he saw was Sully, his long time friend and only father figure he ever knew in his life, tied and gagged to a chair. Right next to him was Elena. A girl he had shared...well let's just say he'd been through a lot with her.

Sully's eyes lit up when he saw the two people he cared about there at the door to save him. Although he never doubted for a second Nate would do whatever it took to save him. He had taught him everything he knew, and did a damn good job.

Chloe bolted into the room after Nate and made her way over to Sully, untying him from his binds and patted him on the shoulder. "You all right there old man?" she said with a smirk.

Sully grunted as he stood up. "Never been better. Now Nate just save your girl and we can get out of this goddamn funhouse."

Nate just looked at Elena for a few moments. Unlike Sully, her mouth wasn't covered. The look on her face was odd. She looked smug. Nate had known Elena for five years and she was never the cocky type, if anything it was him.

"I knew you'd come for me." She said as she smiled at him.

"Yeah..." Nate said cautiously, putting his gun back in the holster. "...Of course I would." he then made his way over to her and untied the ropes around her wrists.

"Come on you two, we've got to get going. Re-enforcements will be here any second." Chloe warned them, wanting to avoid getting themselves killed.

Nate felt himself still standing there, looking at Elena. He couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, and when he had these hunches, as much as he hated it, he was usually right.

"Let's get you two out of here." He said, turning around. Just then he felt Elena pull the gun from the holster behind him. He could feel the cold barrel against his back. With nothing else to do and no more weapons on him, he slowly raised his arms.

The next thing he felt was Elena lifting up his shirt and pulling the map he was carrying from his back pocket. All that work...for nothing.

"Whoa, whoa what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Sully shouted at her.

Chloe quickly pointed her weapon at Elena, hoping that she could create a stalemate for Nate to get away.

"Drop your weapon or I pull the trigger." Elena said to Chloe.

"Son of a bitch!" Chloe cursed, not knowing what she could do at this point.

"Just do it Chloe." Nate instructed her and she did just that. She stood next to Sully, now all of their hands in the air.

Next, Elena kicked Nate hard in the back to make him join his buddies. She kept the gun pointed at the three of them every second. "Looks like the luck of the famous Nathan Drake has finally run out." she said with an evil laugh.

"I should have known." Nate said, kicking himself for getting him and the others into this mess.

"Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?" Sully asked in anger, not to mention shock.

"You have me and what you want, just let Chloe and Sully go." Nate told her. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to get hurt because of his mistakes.

"No," Elena said with rage in her voice. "I want them to watch you die." She was drawing closer to them with each passing second.

"You don't have to do this. We can work this out." Nate told her.

"What do you have to gain from-" Chloe began.

"Shut up!" Elena screamed back at her. The others could feel her rage building.

"Elena please. I just want to-" Nate began, only to be cut off by Elena's screaming voice.

"I've had enough of your bullshit, Nate." She said with a growl and pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting Nate in the side of the stomach. He staggered backwards. Sully didn't care if she shot him too at this point. He immediately ran over to the man that is like his son.

"Oh no, no, no." He muttered softly to himself, looking over Nate's wound.

"God!" Chloe cried, she then grabbed her weapon from the floor and fired twice at Elena, who was now making her getaway since she now had what she desired. Loud blasts ran throughout the church.

Elena smiled, she knew that this was none other than the back up she had requested. "Hahaha, enjoy the ride all." she said with a wave and hopped out of a nearby window, grabbing onto a rope ladder that lead to her helicopter. And just like that...she was gone.

Chloe looked around at the church now crumbing all around them. "This whole place is coming down, we've got to get the hell out of here."

Nate's breaths were becoming ragged and his voice was shaken. "You guys habe got to...get out of here." he told the two.

"Not without you, kid. You're coming with us." Sully said without question.

"I'll just slow you down. Please..." Nate said once more.

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Sully said, lifting Nate forward, only to hear him scream in anguish upon doing so. "Chloe, do you see if the bullet went through?" he asked.

Chloe ran over to Nate's back and took a look. She felt her heart stop when she didn't see an exit point. She didn't say anything, she just shook her head.

"Goddammit." Sully cursed. He knew the bullet was stuck and the bleeding would only get worse until it was removed.

A moment later, another blast shook the room.

"You've got to get out of here...you've got to get out of here." Nate repeated. He knew he couldn't move in this condition and them staying here for him would only get them killed as well.

"What do we do?" Chloe asked in panic, looking to Sully for answers.

"I'll handle him, you go ahead and clear the way." Sully told her. Chloe nodded in agreement and ran to do just that.

Sully then thew Nate's arm around his shoulder and hoisted him up. "Come on, Nate." he said firmly. As soon as they stood, a blast rang through the room and made Nate and Sully fall back to the ground. Nate looked up to see the ceiling crumbling fast. Thinking quickly, he kicked Sully out of the room to safety. Now the path was blocked and Nate was trapped. All he cared about was Chloe and Sully were out of there.

Nate just lay there propped against a wall. He held his bloodstained left hand up and looked at his ring. He and Elena both had one. As he watched his hand shake he knew this was it. He was going to die here.

"I'm so sorry, Elena." he said in a near whisper at this point. Before he slipped into unconsciousness he heard a voice call out to him.

"Nate? Nate!" the voice cried.

Just as he focused his eyes to see who it was, everything around him went black.

A few moments later he felt himself wake up again to someone slapping lightly on his face.

"Come on, Nate. You have to stay awake. You have to open your eyes alright?" the voice said with urgency.

When he opened his eyes he saw a woman. "...E—Elena?" he said breathlessly.

Elena smiled when she saw that his eyes were open and that he recognized her. "Yeah, come on, we need to get you somewhere else." she said, helping him rise to his feet.

As they walked, Nate thought of something that made him uneasy. "How...do I know it's really...you?" he asked, fearing this was another trick from Adelle. Which was the real Elena?

Nate then looked to her and then to her neck. He ran his thumb gently across her pale skin. There was nothing—no necklace. This was really her, without a doubt. Feeling a rush of relief, he grabbed her tight and hugged her. Elena closed her eyes and enjoyed his embrace she missed so much.

After a moment, she broke free. "Come on, let's get you to the next room." she said, clearing her throat.

She lead him to a room that had a bedroom set up from where the priests of the church would stay. The bed seemed to still be in tact from the explosions. A table was next to the bed that held a lamp that gave off a faint light. As fast as she could, she got Nate into the bed to rest. His pained noises were making her very nervous. She had never seen him like this before, he was always witty and sarcastic.

"How did you...get free?" he asked, bringing his legs onto the bed. He rested his head against the headboard and had his eyes closed tightly.

"We can talk about that later." she told him. "For now I need to get you fixed up. We need to get that bullet out _now_."

Nate's eyes shot open and looked to her. "What? No, no way. I can't let you got through something like that. I...can do it myself." he said. The color was fading fast from his face and his breathing becoming more intense.

Elena just sighed and shook her head. "Still as stubborn as always." she said. "Nate, it'll be alright. I can do this. You just have to trust me."

With those words his eyes looked deep into hers. "I'd trust you with my life." he said weakly. He placed his hand on hers. She looked like her heart ached with every passing moment. She pulled her hand away and reached into her hair. From it, she pulled out a silver bird-beak clip. Her hair fell to her shoulders.

"I can get the bullet out with this." she told him. She walked across the room to a candle and brought it over to the bed. She ran the tips of the clip over the flame to sterilize it.

Once it was she placed the back end of it into her mouth and reached to Nate's waist. She began to unbuckle his belt.

"Not tonight, baby. I'm not really in the mood." he said with almost no energy, still keeping his Nathan Drake charm in this serious situation.

Elena just rolled her eyes playfully and pulled his belt from the loops. "Here." she said, handing it to him. "You're going to need to...bite on it." she warned him. She felt a lump in her throat form. This was going to be extremely difficult...on the both of them.

Nate nodded and took it from her. Before he put it between his teeth he placed a bloodstained hand on Elena's cheek. He could tell she was a mess inside about all of this. "Elena...it's...going to be alright. We'll get through this...alright?" he told her. As nervous as he was about the pain, he trusted that she knew what she was doing.

She just looked at him with pained eyes. "I hope so." she said in a breaking whisper. She swallowed hard, looked downward and tried to focus. "Um...just concentrate on something that makes you feel tranquil."

"Yeah. I will." he replied, not breaking his glance from Elena.


	10. Chapter 10 - Bite the Bullet

**-10-**

**Bite the Bullet**

Chloe and Sully looked behind them to see the doors of the church crumbling. There was no way back in for them. They had never felt so helpless. Nate was going to die and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.

"Goddammit!" Chloe cursed loudly, grabbing her head in fury.

"Chloe, you've got to calm down a little." Sully told her.

"Calm down!? Are you mad!?" she screamed. "That bitch just shot Nate, Victor! He's in there alone and he's going to die!"

"No he's not." a voice said from ahead of them. Neither of them had weapons on them so they raised their hands.

From the shadows ahead came Vergil. He didn't have hiss weapon drawn and didn't seem to be a threat to them. The mask was removed from his face from earlier. He had bright green eyes and full lips. It was shocking to see the kindness in his face.

"Listen, kid we have had more than enough goddamn trouble today. We don't have anything you want so why don't you just report back to that bitch you call your leader?" Sully told him. He wasn't in the mood for this bullshit.

"No, I'm done reporting to her. I'm...done with all of that." Vergil told them. "I want to help you—really." he walked closer, holding his hands up as well.

"You can't expect us to believe that do you?" Chloe said angrily.

"What can I do to prove it?" he asked.

"Well, you can start by throwing that AK away from your reach." Sully said, still feeling like this kid was out of his gourd.

Without hesitation, Vergil took the AK from behind him and tossed it to the floor. There were no other visible weapons on him. "Satisfied?" he asked, growing tired of their suspicion.

Chloe walked up to him slowly and looked at him for a moment. A second later she pulled back and punched him hard across the face. "You asshole!" she yelled down to him, now that he was on the floor.

Vergil grabbed his jaw and opened his mouth to loosen it up from the hit. "Guess I deserved that." he admitted, getting back on his feet.

"You said Nate wasn't alone in there. Who's in there with him?" Sully asked.

"That blonde girl...Elena was it?" he answered. "The one that was trapped with the old man here."

"Watch it." Sully glared at him.

"How did she get freed?" Chloe asked him next.

"I let her go." Vergil explained. "When Adelle took the old ma—err...that man there to bargain with Drake, I talked with her and let her go."

"Why would you do something like that? You know Adelle will order a hit on you for this." Chloe warned him.

Vergil sighed. "Probably. But I don't care. I'm sick of taking orders from someone like that. I don't have it in me to kill. Never have. The money was decent and I had some debts to pay off. But I'm finished with all of that." A few moments of silence passed before he spoke again. He didn't blame them for being cautious. "Look, I will tell you all you want to know and more, but first we need to get you out of here."

"He's got a point." Sully admitted, much as he hated it.

"Right, we need to meet up with Adelle. If she gets her hands on that statue it'll be our asses." Chloe said. "But..." she began, still worrying about Nate and if he would be okay.

Vergil placed a hand on her shoulder. "He'll be okay. I've met that guy. He's too stubborn to die." he told her. "I guarantee he will meet us wherever Adelle is, but until then we need to stall her."

Chloe scoffed and pulled her arm away. "Fine." She then turned to him with fury. "But I won't hesitate to punch your ass back to Italy if you betray us. Got it?"

Vergil raised his hands again in defeat. "Hey, I have a glass jaw. I wouldn't risk messing up this pretty face like that." he said with a wink and a click of the tongue.

"Jesus." Chloe said, rolling her eyes. Then they all headed to the boat Adelle had left there.

Sully took a cigar from his pocket and lit it. "This is going to be a loooooong trip." he said to himself. But before he left he took a drag from his cigar and looked back to the church. "Hang in there, kid. Don't know what I'd do without ya."

XXX

Deep within the church, Elena was nervous to begin her work. "Nate, I'll try and make this be as quick as possible.

"Now this..._really_ feels like a date." he joked. It made him feel good to see Elena smile at him.

"Shut up." she said, her smile quickly fading.

"Yes ma'am." he said, placing the black leather belt in his mouth and biting down hard, bracing himself. He removed his hand from the wound.

Elena looked down to see the wound bleeding badly. It was hard for her to see the bullet through all the blood, but she saw a faint glint. "Oh, Nate..." she said softly to herself. She couldn't imagine how horrible and agonizing this was.

"Do you...see it?" Nate said through his teeth.

"Yeah. Try and stay as still as you can." she told him. Nate just nodded in response. From there, she took the clip and inserted it into the bullet hole. She saw Nate arch his back slightly and scream through the belt in his mouth.

"Okay, okay, okay!" she said over and over, trying to ease the shaking in her hands. "I have a grip on it. Just a little longer." she said in a soothing voice. She knew she had to hurry, his blood was getting all over her hands.

She pulled the bullet out slowly, to make sure pieces didn't break off as she extracted it. Nate's screams filled her ears, she could tell he was holding it back as much as he could. What felt like an eternity later, she finally was able to get the bullet out. As soon as she did, she applied pressure to stop the bleeding.

"It's over..." she said, stroking his hair softly. "It's over."

Nate spit the belt from his mouth and began to feel his body relax. "Jesus." he said in a pained voice, his breathing becoming softer. "Thank you, Elena...thank you."

"Just doing my job." she smiled at him. "You did great."

"So did you." he said softly. He placed his hand behind her head and pulled her to his face and kissed her. Elena didn't resist. She gave in for this moment. His kiss is what she had longed for again for so long. It was better than she remembered. Then the memories of the pain he caused her came rushing back and she broke the kiss, as much as she didn't want to. "You should uh...try and get some sleep. You've been through a lot. I'll keep watch." she said.

Nate knew the reason she pulled away and didn't blame her. He was surprised she even kissed him back in the first place. "Yeah...I won't be out too long. Wake me up if you need me, alright?" Elena nodded in response and he closed his eyes. It seemed like a matter of seconds before he was out.

Elena just looked over him, wiping tears from her face.


	11. Chapter 11 - Blood Lust

**-11-**

**Blood Lust**

Back on the water again, Sully felt relieved that this time he was in control of the boat. Truth be told, he'd rather be flying a jet plane any day of the week. Piloting a boat was just too...safe. With his teeth, he held a cigar in his mouth. Being on the water with a good smoke felt damn good. As much as he wanted to relax and just get to the destination he had in mind, he couldn't help but think of Nate. Last he saw him he was close to bleeding to death. Even if Elena was with him, what could she do with no medical experience? He had been shot a few times in his days and it was no picnic.

Sully had never been one to do much praying. Wasn't sure which God out there was the real one. "Big guy..." he said lowly to himself. "I know you don't owe me any favors. Haven't done much to make you like me, but if you really are up there...please let Nate get through this." he paused for a moment and took a puff off of his cigar. "You...uh, know I don't have any kids. When I was younger it was the last thing I wanted, but...you gave me one anyways. I just hope you don't take him away." After his words ended he sniffed a couple of times and coughed.

"Look at me, talking to myself like this." he muttered. "Like a goddamn crazy person." A moment later he looked up at the heavens, feeling for a second that there was someone up there, and somehow heard his prayer.

In the cabin, Chloe sat with her legs up on a table, reading a book. On a cot across the small room, Vergil was snoozing away. She looked up from her book and focused her eyes on him. She couldn't help but think he was attractive. In his sleep he really looked quite handsome. He rested his arms behind his head, showing off his beefy arms. Chloe bit down on her lip as she watched him.

She shook the naughty thoughts she had from her mind and went back to her reading. She jumped when she looked up and saw him now sitting across the table from her. "Jesus!" she yelled.

"I saw you looking at my package." he said with a sleazy smile. Chloe's jaw dropped and she slapped him hard across the face. Vergil just laughed. "I love the way you slap me." he told her.

"Clearly, or you wouldn't piss me off so much." She said, rising from her chair.

"I can't help but come on to a beautiful lady." he told her.

Chloe stopped for a second and looked at him with a kinder face. "Oh...well thank you." she answered.

Vergil walked up to her and looked down behind her. "With such a smackable ass." he added, slapping her backside.

Chloe grabbed his wrist tightly. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" she yelled in his face. Vergil didn't budge he just kept doing that smile that drove Chloe mad. After a brief second of infuriated glances, Chloe kissed Vergil hard and passionate on the lips. She was like an animal that couldn't control herself. Vergil didn't mind this one bit, he just kissed her back even harder.

"God, I hate you!" she said in passion, still groping him with her hands.

"Your actions tell me otherwise." Vergil chuckled, lifting her off the ground, her legs around his waist.

"Screw you." she answered still not breaking their embrace. She'd never wanted someone so bad in her entire life.

XXX

Meanwhile, in the church, Elena sat up in the bed next to Nate. He had been sleeping for a couple hours and she was relieved. If he was asleep, he couldn't be in pain. Thrown over the edge of the bed was Nate's black shirt he was wearing. It had so much blood on it that it needed to dry out. She had covered him up with the quilt on the bed so he didn't freeze.

Her mind kept wandering back to the kiss he and she shared. How badly she wanted to keep it going. But she shook these thoughts from her head and looked down at him. His left hand was resting on top of the blanket, over his wound. She saw that he was wearing his wedding band. She couldn't believe it. She reached her hand down to his and ran her fingers over it.

Why was he still wearing his wedding band when they never got married?

This made her think of something. From the top of her shirt, she pulled out another wedding band. It wasn't the one that Nate had given her, but it was tied to him. It was his "Sic Parvis Magna" ring. She had planned to give it back to him on the day they were married.

She took the ring and began to place it on her finger, but she was interrupted when she heard a sharp wince come from Nate. She quickly put the ring back in her shirt and tended to him.

"Nate, what's the matter?" she asked in worry. His eyes flickered open and he began to gasp slightly. Something was horribly wrong. He couldn't answer all he could do was make pained noises.

Elena pulled the blanket back and saw that his wound was bleeding out badly. When he was asleep she had wrapped a white sheet around his torso to bandage the wound. The sheet now was stained deep red. She was horrified that he was going to go into shock.

She took both her hands and pressed down hard on the bleeding. "Nate, Nate listen to me." she said, having to turn his face to look at her. "You have to help me. You have to apply pressure as hard as you can."

"No." Nate said with a strained voice. He took her hands and removed them from the bullet hole.

"What!?" Elena shrieked. "If you don't you'll die!"

Nate's hair was dampened with sweat and his breathing becoming weaker. "Let me." he said. "If I die...I-I can't hurt anyone anymore."

Elena shook her head at him. "Please don't do this...please..." she pleaded to him. "I...need you." she said softly.

Nate looked at her in shock. "You do?" he asked her.

Elena now nodded her head with glassy eyes. "Yes. Yes I do. So please." she said, taking Nate's hand and placing it on the wound.

"You're a hard girl to say 'no' to." he said to her. So he did what he was told and barred down hard on the wound. He groaned in anguish as he did so.

Elena quickly ripped up a new sheet and wrapped it as fast as she could around his body. Once the bleeding was wrapped, he once again applied pressure. This time, the bleeding should stop all together.

Elena took a look around the bed where they lay and blood was all over the place. "You lost a lot of blood, Nate..." she said nervously.

"No more than I've spilled myself." he told her.

"Don't think about all that right now." she said, sitting next to him and bringing his head to her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair to relax him. "Just...don't think." she said once more.

"If only it were that easy." he said softly. Elena thought to herself the same thing. Wishing there was a way to turn off every painful memory.

"I'm sorry I scared you, Elena. Really. You keep on saving my life." he said. Grateful to her that she was there when he needed someone the most, not to mention keeping her composure during a sudden surgery. "You're an angel."

Elena scoffed slightly. "I don't know about that." she said.

"And you never looked more so than on our wedding day." he said in a soothed voice. It didn't fit to how their wedding day panned out. He sounded happy thinking back on it.

"What...?" she said. She couldn't believe that he was bringing up something like that at a moment like this. It wasn't like him to be so cruel.

"When I saw you walk down that aisle, I never felt so lucky. You're dress, your hair, everything was flawless. I knew I made the right choice to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to be able to call you my wife forever." Nate told her. He sounded so sincere, so in love.

It was then that a thought hit Elena, Nate had lost so much blood he was hallucinating.

He thought that they were married.


	12. Chapter 12 - 'What-Ifs'

**-12-**

**The 'What-Ifs'**

Elena just sat there stunned for a moment, reflecting on Nate's words. From the amount of blood he had lost, it was causing his mind to remember what never was. In his head, Elena was his wife and their wedding day went through without a hitch. Elena was just happy to see that thinking of this put him at ease, and that he wasn't bleeding out anymore. But now she was more confused than she'd ever been.

"Umm...Nate?" she began to say slowly. She considered for a moment coming clean and telling him everything. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. He was feeling bad enough about all he had done in his past, and considering he almost wanted her to let him die because of it, she didn't want to risk bringing those feelings back. Not for a second.

"Hmm?" he answered softly in response.

Instead of telling the truth, she decided to say something else. Her words surprised ever her.

"Tell me more." she said.

Nate smiled and closed his eyes to remember. Little did he know, he was recalling false memories. He searched his memory and they surfaced.

"It was a small wedding—just Sully, Cutter, Chloe and us of course. It was on the mountain top in Tibet...where I thought I lost you forever. But that's also the place where you came back to me." he told her.

Elena felt herself smile, she remembered everything about that place. "Where you where an eight?" she asked him

"Four. I was a four." he claimed.

When she was caught in that explosion by Flynn, Nate was thrown into panic, thinking she was going to die for sure. After all the drama calmed, she asked him on a scale from one to ten how scared was he that she was going to die? He scoffed and said he was only a four, much to her dismay. She insisted he was at least an eight. Although he would never admit it, he was a twelve.

"I was...so worried that day. Worried that I was going to never see your face again. Hear your laugh, see the fall of your hair around your face. All of it. I even..." he trailed off.

"Even what?" Elena asked, curious.

Nate sighed before he spoke again. "I considered not showing up on our wedding day." he told her.

Elena felt her heart sink. Little did Nate know right now, that's exactly what he did. "...Why?" she asked. She was finally going to get that answer to the question she had been asking herself over and over for the past year.

Nate was silent for a moment. "Because...I didn't want something bad to happen to you. I thought that if I married you, that these terrorist sons of bitches would use you to get to me. Doing God knows what to you. It scared the hell out of me. More than anything I want to keep you safe. I figured that you would be sad for a while, but that would be better than you getting killed because of me."

Elena felt her eyes widen. She threw a hand to her mouth to subdue a gasp. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She never thought that something like that would be the reason that he didn't show up. She figured that he wasn't ready to give up sewing his oats. This wasn't what she expected at all. Nate wasn't a cruel jerk to here,like Sully said, his reasons for doing what he did were sound...and they really were.

Nate continued. "I had the door open to tell Sully that I wanted to leave, for him to take me somewhere far away. So I didn't have to deal with it all...but I couldn't do it. As bad of thoughts I had of all the 'what-ifs' that could happen, I couldn't help but think of the good ones. Like...where we would honeymoon together, we could see all the sights without being shot at." he said with a small chuckle. "Then spend our nights together too. Telling you I love you every night that I love you, even if we had gotten into a fight about something petty. Then we could spend Christmas with Sully on a mountain somewhere, then New Years...Easter. Eventually we would be spending our days with our children. Stepping on toys every night, washing crayon off the walls. Going to their karate matches or piano recitals. We'd...be exhausted from all we had to do, treasure hunting would seem like a breeze compared to it but we...we wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

Elena was drawn in by the picture Nate was painting. Her vision blurred with tears as he spoke. She had never heard anything so beautiful. It was exactly the life she had wanted, word for word.

She never thought that it was the life that he wanted too. When her tears fell to her face she quickly wiped them away. She knew it was a life she couldn't have, but wanted more than anything. She hoped so badly that Nate would eventually get his memory back so she didn't have to tell him his life was just a fantasy.

She tried to clear her throat to hide that she was crying. "Maybe, uh...maybe you we should try to get some sleep again, alright? Your wound is wrapped tighter this time so you'll be fine." she said. "We can talk more in the morning."

Nate let out a relieved sigh. "Yeah...goodnight, Elena." he said, quickly falling asleep again in her lap.

"Goodnight, Nate." she answered in a near whisper. She then put her hand against her face and began to weep softly.


	13. Chapter 13 - Blood Will Tell

**-13-**

**Blood Will Tell**

In the church, Nate awoke to the sunlight hitting his eyes through the rickety, dusty blinds this room had. He looked around for a moment and didn't see Elena there. This immediately concerned him. He lifted himself off of the bed, cradling his bullet wound as he did so. It was never so hard for him to stand. Due to the circumstances of Elena removing the bullet, coupled with the amount of blood he had lost, he wasn't feeling too perky. He wandered through the room, looking in the bathroom for her.

The bathroom door creaked open slowly as he pushed it. "Elena...?" he croaked out in a weak voice. The room was empty. Nate let out a sigh and sat on the edge of the bed to think. After taking a moment to revamp, he stood once more. Suddenly someone came through the door that lead to the rest of the church.

"Nate? What are you doing out of bed!?" Elena asked, grabbing one of his shoulders. "You shouldn't be standing."

"Where were you?" he asked.

She held up two water bottles with her hands. "I was trying to see if I could find anything to rehydrate you. Luckily, these were in a pantry with some canned goods." she answered, handing one of the bottles to Nate. "Drink up." she told him.

Nate silently took the bottle from her and stared at it for a moment. All at once everything came to him about what she had done to save his life and how well she nursed him back to health. How stupid he was to leave her at the altar the way he did last year. This was a wake up call. He took his gaze from the bottle to her soft, pale face. Then, without hesitation, he kissed her, wrapping his arms tightly around her body.

Elena was the love of his life, and no amount of terrorists or threats were going to change that. He wanted to be with her always.

"Give me another chance." he said softly as the kiss ended.

Elena, stunned looked at him a moment. "Give me another chance." he said again. "Marry me."

It took a few moments for Elena to really take in what he was saying. Her mouth suddenly felt so dry. She quickly took a sip of the water she still had in her hand. "Are you, uh...serious?" she asked.

Nate took her hands in his. "I've never been more serious, Elena." he assured her. "I was an idiot before. No matter what my reasons were, I shouldn't of done that to you. I love you and I want to be with you." he said.

Elena looked at him sweetly. "I want to be with you too." she said to him. "I'm just...scared." she trailed off.

"I know." Nate said, pushing her hair from her face. "I am too." he said. His head was growing closer for another kiss. "Say yes." he said in almost a whisper, closing his eyes.

Elena nodded slightly, closing her eyes as well, moving in to kiss him back. "Okay." she said.

Then the two began to kiss once more. Their kiss was broken when Nate heard Elena make a weird, whimpering sound.

Nate broke his hold on her. "What's wrong?" he asked in a kind voice. He then looked down to see Elena bleeding badly from her stomach. She just made the same, sad weakened noise again and collapsed in his arms. "Elena? ELENA!" he screamed, holding her tight. He gently patted her face to try and get her to wake up...he got nothing. "Oh, God Elena!" he cried.

Nate then looked ahead to see Adelle there, holding a smoking gun. The smirk on her face made him blind with white hot rage.

"I warned you not to mess with me, Mr. Drake." Adelle said. With a satisfied look, she put her pistol away and walked off. Her work here was done.

Nate didn't even try to go after her. She wasn't worth it. All that mattered was Elena. Her body was limp and motionless. He had never seen her like this.

Nate fought his tears back so hard that his eyes were burning. He just held her and rocked her gently. "I'm so sorry." he choked out "I couldn't save you. I couldn't protect you." he held her head up to his and softly kissed her forehead. Even though he knew she was dead he didn't let her go. He just let out a loud, mourning roar that almost shook the entire building.

The next thing Nate knew, he was jolting out of his sleep, his own screaming waking him. His breaths came in hard gasps and he looked around the room. When he sat up he realized he was raising up from Elena's lap. She sat there sound asleep, Nate's screaming not even waking her.

Elena was just fine. It was all just a nightmare.

As Nate's breathing slowed, he wiped the tears that were in his red eyes from the dream. He breathed a hard sigh of relief and looked deep into Elena's face. He stroked his hand lightly over her head. As he did so, she shifted slightly and her eyes blinked open. She could tell that something was wrong.

"Nate?" she asked. "Is everything alright?"

Nate swallowed hard and nodded his head a little. "Y-yeah." he barely answered.

Elena looked over his body. "Are you in pain? Are you bleeding out again?" she asked in worry, sitting up.

"No, no, no." he assured him. "I'm okay. Thanks to you...I'm okay." he said, forcing a small smile.

Elena cleared her throat before she spoke next. "Do you remember anything about last night?" she asked him, very curious to hear his answer.

Nate took a moment to think of the last thing he could remember. He shook his head a second later. "I, um...I don't remember anything from before I was shot." he told her, racking his brain to try and think of anything after that point.

"That's okay. It's...better if you didn't remember. What you went through was very unpleasant." she told him.

"I'm sorry you have to remember it." he answered. After a brief stint of silence, Nate began to try and stand. "We should get out of here, all right? We need to catch up with Chloe and Sully.

"Can you-" Elena began.

"Don't worry about me. Please." he cut her off. "I won't push myself too hard. I just...want to get out of this place."

Elena was thrown off by his sudden anger. "Okay. Okay, sure." she said, rising from the bed. Nate began to leave the room and walk away. She grabbed his shirt from the bed and noticed how badly stained the sheets were with Nate's blood. She looked from the blood back to him. She could feel it in her bones that something wasn't right.


	14. Chapter 14 - Not a Kid Anymore

**-14-**

**Not a Kid Anymore **

****Note** I just wanted to share with all my followers that I just got engaged! I consider you all to be my friends and wanted to let you know my wonderful news. As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter! =)**

On the water, Sully noticed that he, Chloe and Vergil were fast approaching their destination. As much as Sully enjoyed the scenery of where he had driven the boat, he still couldn't stop thinking of Nathan. He knew that he was more than capable of taking care of himself in shitty situations, but this was a whole other league. All of this made him think of the first time Nate had badly taken a bullet. He would never forget it. It was when Nate was only nineteen. Sully had taken him in only about four years prior and still had to teach him a lot of the ropes. Where he had taught him perfectly how to climb and pickpocket, there where still some things that had to be learned the hard way. Although he knew something like that would happen at one point or the other, he didn't want to think about it. All he could do was teach him how to deal with it if it did. Shooting a firearm was a piece of cake for Nate, Sully had taught him that in the first week. Doing what they did, you had to know how to defend yourself. Young as Nate was, he was nervous the first time he held a 9mm in his hand, but he knew it was something he had to learn to do—so he did.

It was a routine treasure hunt in the Panama Canal. Nate was finally starting to feel like he had the hang of everything. What they sought was gold pieces that would be enough to pay for their rent and any ammunition they needed for about a good year or so, needless to say they wanted it and they wanted it badly. The treasure wasn't really in that hard a spot to reach, the guards that were surveying the area at all times where nasty and they wanted to treasure as well. Unlike Nate and Sully, they didn't know where it was so they were hunting and hunting hard.

Trees and wet rocks were everywhere, not to mention the wildlife that lived there. One wrong move and they'd fall or the animals would get spooked and give away their position in a hot second. Sully and Nate were concealed behind a large tree with their weapons in hand. Nate had a normal 9mm because that's what he shot best giving that was the first gun he learned to shoot. Sully had a Wes that felt damn good to hold. One hit kills were that baby's specialty.

Nate looked over at Sully as they hid and scoffed. "I still don't see why I couldn't be the one to use the Wes." he said in a huffy voice.

"Goddammit this again? Really?" Sully barked at him. "I told you, you're still too damn green to shoot a gun like this. The kickback alone would send you hurling into the canal. We don't need to be making any stupid noises and give away our position. You want a place to live for the next year don't you?" Sully told him.

Nate knew that Sully had a point, but he still wasn't happy about not having a bad ass gun. "I was just saying." he muttered under his breath. "I could handle the kickback..." he added.

"Let's just get this done, Nate." Sully said, quickly losing his patience. "I want to get the hell out of this place." After he spoke, he took a look around to see if any guards were near them. He spotted three. "Okay, kid. I got the two on the right side, you take the one on the left. After that we bolt to where the gold is. Got it?" he informed him.

Nate nodded. "And after this you teach me how to shoot a gun like that." he smiled.

Sully laughed slightly. "You are too damn much. Fine." he conceded. "But let's see if you can do this right." he said. "On three we fire."

"Right." he answered, getting himself into the right mindset. He and Sully clicked their guns to the ready.

"One...two...three!" he said, on three he and Nate emerged simultaneously from the trees and firing their weapons. Sully firing twice—one for each guard. Nate handled the other guard but took five bullets to do so.

After the guards were down, Sully sighed and put his Wes away. "That was some mighty shitty shooting there, kid." he told him.

"Because I'm shooting with a piece of crap, Sully!" Nate retaliated. "If I had a gun like that-"

"Enough with the goddamn gun already!" He shouted at him. "If you can't shoot a threat with one to two bullets tops with something as common as a 9mm you damn sure can't handle a gun like this one!" he said, pulling the Wes back out and showing it to him.

Nate just made a disgruntled face. "I'm not a kid anymore." he said under his breath.

"Oh yes you are. Trust me." Sully corrected him, walking ahead of him to retrieve the treasure they were there for. They soon came to an odd patch of soil, this was what they were looking for. Sully placed the Wes on the ground next to him so he could start digging. "Alright, cover me, kid. I'll have this gold out in no time." And with that he began to use his bare hands to tear through the dirt quickly as he could. Nate stood with his gun in pointed in front of him to be ready for whatever came Sully's way. Nate couldn't take his gaze off of the Wes on the ground.

Suddenly, Nate heard a twig snap a few feet in front of him. It was a missed guard. He knew he had to take care of him and fast. Thinking quickly, he grabbed the exposed Wes from the soil and fired it. The kickback threw him off of his balance and the guard got a shot in, a bullet hitting Nate in his left shoulder. He let out a pained cry and fell to the ground.

"Son of a bitch." Sully cursed hard to himself. Nate had dropped the gun when he was shot backwards so Sully grabbed it and quickly killed the guard with a single bullet. Once he knew the man was dead he ran over to Nate, still screaming on the ground, grabbing his shoulder. "What the hell were you thinking!?" he shouted at Nate. He looked at the wound to see how bad it was. Luckily for Nate, the bullet had gone all the way through and he wouldn't have to remove it. They weren't near any hospitals or healing facilities either, not that they would have been able to use them anyway, they weren't exactly where they were legally after all.

"Am I go-going to die, Sully?" he asked, sounding like the child he still was.

Sully patted him on the head. "No, no you're not, kid. You're going to live to defy me another day." he assured him. He pulled some gauze he had on him and wrapped it around Nate's shoulder. "I can stop the bleeding but the pain you're going to have to deal with for now." he warned him.

Nate just lay there and fought back tears. He was relieved he wasn't going to die, but this was far worse than any pain he had felt yet. He knew weapons could kill people, but did they feel like this as they died? He didn't want his mind to go there. It was then he realized that guns were far more dangerous than he thought them to be. "I'm sorry, Sully." he said with a shaken voice.

"If you listen to me from now on, I'll let it go all right?" he answered. He grabbed a couple of the gold pieces he was able to salvage, nowhere near all of them, but he knew he had to get Nate out of there, especially if any more guards decided to show themselves. "Come on." he said, hoisting Nate onto his back. Lucky for him he was still very young and not difficult to carry. He piggybacked him all the way to the car and then home.

Although he never would tell Nate to his face, he was scared as all hell when that happened. Seeing him in anguish like that was hard for him to handle, and being in the middle of Panama and not having any way to get him medical attention made him feel worse. But they got through it, he would just have to hope he could get through this as well. He'd gladly take a bullet for Nate, he'd take a thousand.

After taking his trip down memory lane, he went to the cabin of the ship to inform Chloe and Vergil that they had reached their destination. He opened the door to find the pair of them in bed kissing one another...naked under the sheets.

His eyes shot wide open. "Jesus Christ!" he shouted, pulling the door closed as fast as he could behind him. Now he felt like he would have to scoop out his eyes with a spoon. Even though Chloe looked like a Victoria Secret model, he couldn't say the same for Vergil. "I, uh, just wanted to tell you that we're here!" he shouted through the door.

Sully shuttered as he walked away. "The things the mind can't unsee..."


	15. Chapter 15 - Rough Waters

**-15-**

**Rough Waters**

When Elena and Drake left the church the overcast light hit them in the face. They had been in the darkness of the church so long that any light was enough to burn their eyes. They were close to the water. They were able to climb out of a nearby window and shimmy down the side of the building. The force of the climbing made Nate's side hurt all the more. Luckily Elena was able to climb down herself and he didn't have to catch her, because he wasn't sure if he would be able to in his condition. Once the two were on the ground they surveyed the area for any means of escape. Elena handed over Nate's shirt that he had bled all over the night before. Most of the blood had dried and wasn't noticeable against the black of the shirt.

"Here." she said, handing the shirt to him. "It's kind of chilly out here since we're so close to the water." Elena felt herself feeling distracted. Nate had gone from soft-hearted to hard in the span of one night. What was worse was he didn't even remember their kiss or any of the things he had told her about their non-wedding day. But he was never the kind to share his feelings. He had to be half-dead in order to do that.

"Oh...thanks." he answered, distracted. He took the shirt and carefully slipped it on, never remembering it ever being this hard to get dressed. Once he was he took his gaze out to the water. He spotted a nice boat that would be able to get them where they needed to be. They figured a man must of came out here to fish or something since this wasn't a popular area.

"There." he said, pointing to the boat. "We're taking that to get to Sully and Adelle." he told her, jogging over to the ship.

"What?" Elena protested. "We can't! This belongs to someone, we can't just steal it!"

Nate sighed and rolled his eyes. "Would you rather Adelle beat us to Norway? If she gets her hands on that other ring we can't trust anyone or anything anymore. We don't have a choice, Elena." he told her.

Elena just brought her hands to her face and shook her head—there was no arguing with him. "All right." she conceded. "But at least let me drive." she said, hopping into the boat as fast as she could to get all this over with.

"Yeah. Sure. Just gun it for a while until we're pretty far away from here, no doubt this guy will have a search party out for this damn boat." he told her, boarding the boat as well. He took a look behind him to see someone running full speed at that. "Go, Elena. Go!" he shouted.

"I'm on it!" she answered, getting that boat out of there in a flash.

The man on the other hand didn't know what the hell was going on. He had just gone to take a leak around the back and now he comes back and his prize ship is gone. "Ritorno con la mia barca demoni!" he screamed in Italian at them, throwing his fishing cap he was wearing into the water after them. But it was too late. They were looooong gone.

Elena knew that she and Nate didn't have a choice in stealing the boat, but it still made her feel guilty. She and Nate sat in cold silence for the first few miles of their journey. Neither of them knowing what to say to break the silence.

A few minutes later, Nate finally broke it. "So...you never told me how you managed to escape earlier. What happened?" he asked, still looking ahead at the water, not at her.

"It was all thanks to Vergil." She answered, then let out a small laugh. "Never thought I would be saying that about one of Adelle's men but it's true." she told him.

"So he helped you?" Nate asked, turning to her with a raised brow. Like Elena, he never thought a lead terrorist's guard would do anything to help someone.

"Yeah." She answered. "We were in the church and Adelle had just ordered the other guard to take Sully out to use as bait. I was so worried she was going to hurt him. Angry as I was at the two of you this past year, I couldn't stand it if anything happened to him...or..." she trailed off, looking over to him, but she couldn't bring herself to say the words, so she went on, looking back to the sea ahead. "Vergil, he never seemed like he was really for helping out Adelle, he was usually quiet and stayed far in the background until he was needed. I was tied to that chair in the back of the church, not knowing what was coming next. Then..."

"'Then'?" Nate asked her.

Elena let out a brief sigh before she spoke again. "Adelle came in." she said, this memory being difficult for her to express.

"Did she hurt you?" Nate asked, eager to hear her reply. He didn't need more of a reason to kill the bitch, but this would have given him another one.

Elena shook her head. "No, not really. Just a smack across the face here and there..." she then looked back to Nate. "I've been through worse." she told him.

Nate knew she was referencing their non-wedding day and quickly turned his gaze out to the window next to him. "What happened then?" he asked, the uneasiness of this moment gnawing at him.

"She walked up to me and just stood there for a moment, looking at me. She looked smug as anything." Elena said.

_(Flashback)_

_Elena sat in the darkened room of the church, tied securely to the wooden chair she was sitting in. Vergil stood behind her with his weapon drawn, hoping over and over in his mind that he wouldn't have to use it. Elena wanted to speak to him, try to convince him to let her go, but she felt it wouldn't matter, a guard for Adelle didn't have a conscience. _

_Elena jumped when she heard the door in front of her loudly spring open. In the doorway, there stood Adelle, smug looking just like how she had described. The necklace that was the start of this whole mess, hanging delicately from her neck. She strode her way up to Elena and looked at her a moment before hitting her hard across the face. Vergil felt himself wanting to stop her, but knew it would be the end of her and himself if he did._

"_If it isn't the Mrs." Adelle laughed in Elena's face. She knew all too well what had happened between the two of them and didn't hesitate to use it to upset her. "Oh, my bad. It's still Ms." she grinned. "Ah, how pathetic must one be to not even make it to the altar after...how old are you know Ms. Fisher?" she asked, itching to get under her skin._

"_I know what you're trying to do and it isn't going to work. You don't know me." Elena answered, looking away from her._

"_Oh, but I do know you." Adelle answered, pulling a piece of paper from her blouse. "Ran away from home at the age of sixteen due to a strained relationship with her father. Then went on to college, majored in journalism, went on to become a reporter that's been scorned by the same man what...three times over now?" she told her, the iciness in her voice hitting Elena's ears. She had hit everything on the mark. Bullseye._

_Elena just sat there speechless for a moment, unable to counter what she had just said._

"_So you see, Ms. Fisher, I **do** know you." Adelle smirked. "And I know even after all the times he hurt you, you still love the man, am I wrong?_

_Elena sat there and closed her eyes tightly, trying to shut out the words Adelle hissed at her. It wasn't working._

"_The question here is, does he feel the same way about you? Will your name be the last one he whispers when I kill him?" Adelle told her, getting her attention immediately. She was delighted to see Elena react the way she did._

"_What!?" Elean yelled. "Why would you kill him when he has something you need?" she asked._

_Adelle turned to her and laughed. "He does have something I need, Ms. Fisher, but he's bringing it to me right now in exchange for your safety. But little does your boytoy know..." she tampered off, using the necklace around her neck to transform into the spitting image of Elena. "I'm really the one he's going to be saving?"_

_Elena felt her eyes widened bigger than they ever have before. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She never thought that something like this would be possible, despite what she had seen it the past. "H-how...?" she stammered._

_Adelle pulled a gun from her pocket and showed it to Elena before putting it back. "Or should I ask, will Nate love you when **you're **the one that's going to kill him?" she laughed. "See you around, Ms. Fisher! I'll say goodbye to your would-be husband for you!" she said, leaving the room, confident that she had won._

_Elena felt panic fill her body. She began to buck back and forth her chair to free herself from her ties. She felt Vergil come up behind her._

"_Hey..." he said in a gentle voice holding out a hand. "Calm down." he told her._

"_Calm down!?" Elena shrieked back at him. "She's going to kill Nate and he's going to think I did it!"_

"_No..." Vergil told her, untying her ropes from her chair. "No he won't."_

_Once Elena realized she was freed, she stood up in shock. "What're you...?" she asked._

"_I'm doing what I should have done in the first place. I'm done working for Adelle. What she said to you was...well, let's just say she's a bad person and I want to be done with her." he explained. He had his reasons for wanting to help her, no matter what they were. _

"_How can I trust you?" she asked him._

_Vergil pulled a gun out from his holster and handed it to her. "Like this. I don't know what else I can do to convince you. Just...go after him." he told her._

_Elena felt herself speechless again but this time for different reasons. "Thank you..." she stopped when she realized that she didn't know his name. _

"_Vergil. Just call me Vergil." He told her._

"_Thank you, Vergil." Elena said, shaking his hand. _

_As soon as their handshake ended, they heard a loud gunshot ring through the church. "Oh, God..." Elena said in horror._

"_Let's go!" Vergil yelled and the two began to run out of the room. Before they could get out of the room, a blast shook the church and made the two lose their footing. Vergil staggered backwards and fell out of the wide window next to them._

_Elena ran to the window quickly. "Vergil!" she called out to him. She looked out the window to see if she saw him. She saw him on the ground, she felt a wave of relief flow over her when she saw him move. "Are you okay!?" she asked._

_Vergil groaned and sat up. "Yeah...I think I just broke my ass though..." he grumbled. "Just, go to Nate. I'll be all right."_

_Elena nodded. "Thank you!" she yelled before she ran out of the room after Nate._

_(End of Flashback)_

"Wow..." Nate said, reflecting on her story. "Sounds like we both owe him a lot."

"Yeah." Elena nodded. "He was the only reason I was able to get to you when I did. If he hadn't of let me go..."

A few moments of silence passed before Nate spoke again. "Elena...about the things Adelle said to you-" before he could end his sentence a blast rattled the boat.

"What the hell was that?" Elena exclaimed looking ahead on the water.

Nate looked ahead as well. "Shit! It's some of Adelle's soldiers!" he warned her.

"She must have sent them out to patrol the waters." She said.

"Elena, do you still have that gun Vergil gave you?" he asked her.

"Yeah." She answered, pulling the gun from her pocket and handing it over to him. "It doesn't have a lot of ammo, Nate." she told him.

Nate took the gun and clicked it to the ready. "I'll make it be enough. I'm going to go up to the deck and clear some of these guys out. Just keep the boat as steady as you can, all right?" he said.

"I'll do the best I can. Just, please be careful." she told him.

"Yeah...you too." he answered. After he spoke he climbed out of the ship and onto the deck. Once he got there he saw three boats each with two men on them. He shot five of them with clean head-shots but the last one he got him in the chest. He waited a moment to watch him fall. He breathed a sigh of relief. He checked the barrel of the gun and saw one bullet. "One to spare." he said to himself, pulling the gun into his jeans. He then felt the boat come to a halt and Elena came running out on deck with him.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, looking him over.

"No more banged up than I was before." he told her. He took a moment and just looked at her face. The light breeze just shifting her hair left to right.

"I need to get back to the wheel." She said, beginning to head back inside the boat. She felt Nate grab her arm to stop her.

"Hey..." he said softly to her to get her to wait. He slowly went in to kiss her, but before their lips could touch he pulled away. "Something's wrong." he said in a serious voice and pulled away from her. When he pulled back he noticed a red dot on Elena's chest. "Elena!" he screamed. He pulled her down to the floor and as they fell he shot the sniper on the boat that he had missed before. This time, the bullet hitting the guard square in the head.

As they hit the floor Nate let out a pained cry from falling on him falling on his side. He looked over to Elena and slid over to her. "Hey hey hey are you all right?" he asked quickly, stroking her face, looking over her body to see any shot marks. Much to his relief, there were none.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She answered in a shook up voice. "Thanks to your quick thinking." she told him. "I...guess we're even on the whole 'life-saving' thing." she chuckled.

Before she could get out her next thought she felt Nate kiss her and kiss her hard. When they parted, she just looked at him for a moment, knowing she could never look at anyone else that way.

Nate looked at Elena, knowing he couldn't look at anyone else that way. As he went in to kiss her once more, he felt a memory pound in his head. Elena dead in his arms because he didn't let her go when he had the chance. Nate pushed himself off of her and placed a hand on his head. This was like a nightmare he couldn't wake up from.

"What is it?" She asked him in worry.

Nate just shook his head side to side. "Nothing...it's nothing." he stood and extended a hand to help Elena up. She noticed again that he was unable to look at her. "I'll drive the boat for a while." he said abruptly and began to walk back into the boat. His back still to her he said, "I'm sorry. I'm just...sorry." he said in a defeated voice and continued into the boat.

Elena just stood there for a moment. "So am I..." she said softly.


	16. Chapter 16 - Secrets and Lies

**-16-**

**Secrets and Lies**

The next morning, after Sully had seen what he would now contribute to some night terrors, he sat out on the deck and waited for the horn dogs to emerge from their cage. Seeing two people claw at one another like that...people that he knew and loved like children nonetheless. The only time that was even comparable was when he walked in on Nate...romancing a girl when he was in his twenties. As much as he hated it that image was forever burned into his brain, and now this was right next to it.

"Damn kids..." Sully muttered to himself, taking out one of his smokes and lighting it, secretly hoping that this would ease his nausea.

A few minutes later, Chloe and Vergil came bursting out of the bedroom together. Chloe was pulling down on her red top signaling she had gotten dressed in a hurry. This wasn't helped when Vergil zipped his fly as well. They were stone cold busted.

"Victor, I am so sorry you had to see that." She told him, humiliated.

"Yeah, so am I." Sully answered.

Vergil giggled and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm just sorry you didn't have a video camera."

Chloe looked over at him with angry eyes. "Will you just shut up, man!?" she screamed at him.

Sully stood, trying to ease the conflict. "It's okay, Chloe. Being in such close quarters with such young...vital individuals it was bound to happen...I think." he told them.

"Thank you, Victor." she praised him, "Bollocks." she said about the whole matter.

Vergil walked up to her, intrigued by something. "You know, that accent of yours is pretty sexy. Where are you from?" he asked her.

Chloe looked to Sully like this guy had clearly lost what was left of his mind. "You can't be serious..." she said in her thick, clearly British accent.

"Yeah...guess that was a stupid question." Vergil answered. "It's Kentucky isn't it?" he said with a dopey grin. "Louisville perhaps?"

"Close..." Chloe said with a scoff. "Britain. I'm British you moron." she told him, rolling her eyes.

"Relax, Charro. I was only kidding." he told her, hopping on the rails of the ship to sit.

"She was-" Chloe began to shout, but held her tongue. She knew arguing with him was something she was better off not doing. She just threw her hands on her face in exasperation. Deep down, she found his boyish side quite adorable, but she'd die before she let anyone, especially Vergil, know about it.

This made Sully think of something. "Come to think of it, Vergil. Where exactly are you from?" he asked suspiciously, walking over to him, biting on his cigar. "With blonde hair and green eyes like that you can't be Italian. What's your angle?"

"No angle." Vergil answered. "I'm American. Anyone could guess that." It was clear that this subject matter was something of a sore spot with him, given he had just gone ten seconds without saying something sleazy.

"But where in America? And how the hell'd you wind up in Italy, working for a terrorist mastermind no less?" Sully pressed on.

Vergil looked at Sully with eyes that were quickly losing patience. "What does it matter, Sully? I'm here and I'm helping you. I thought I've proven that you can trust me by now?" he told him.

"If we can trust you, then you telling us a little about your background shouldn't be that big of a deal now should it?" Sully pointed out.

Vergil angrily hopped up from the rails and began to walk off. "Don't push this. Seriously." he warned him.

Chloe walked closer to him. "We just want to help you, Vergil. But to do that we need to know what and who we are dealing with." she said in a soft voice.

Vergil left his back to Chloe and Sully. "You can't help me. Not with this." he told them.

"Enough with the goddamn drama, kid. Tell us what's going on!" Sully yelled.

"I can't!" Vergil screamed back, turning around to them.

"Why not!?" Chloe shouted back at him.

"Because I...can't remember." Vergil submitted. He sat on the ground, hanging his head in defeat. "I can't remember anything from when I was a child. Nothing."

Chloe and Sully shot one another a look. They knew that Vergil was right and that they shouldn't of pressed the issue if he didn't want to. With Nate, they knew that his mother had killed herself and his father surrendered him to a boarding school when he was only five. But, that was all they knew about that subject. Nate never talked about it. Not even with Sully.

"We're sorry, Vergil. I shouldn't of egged you on that way." Sully said.

Chloe nodded and sat next to Vergil on the floor. "Do you know what happened to make you forget everything?" she asked.

Vergil let out a sad sigh. "All anyone would tell me was I was in a car accident with my brother when I was seven years old. My brother and parents were killed on impact. Everyone told me that, and only that. No matter how much I asked for more details. I bounced from foster home to foster home all over the globe until I finally just ran away. I was living on the streets for a while and that's when...she found me."

"Adelle you mean?" Chloe asked.

Vergil nodded. "Yes. I needed a place to live and food to eat so I followed her. She trained me to be a soldier to fight for her, but it wasn't until I was older that I realized she worked for the wrong side." he told them sadly. "For so many years I wanted to get out of that life, and now I finally have."

"I'm sorry, Vergil. That's terrible." Chloe said in a soothing voice.

"Don't be." He told her. "Now I finally have a chance to be on the right side and help you take Adelle down so she can't do this kind of thing to anyone else. That's enough for me." he said.

"Then let's go take the bitch down." Sully said with a grin, extending a hand to help Chloe and Vergil stand. The two stood and took their guns out. They were ready for a fight, they just hoped Nate and Elena would meet them there to fight it.

XXX

Nate sat in the driver's seat of the boat alone. Elena was still out on deck. He didn't blame her for not meeting him back in there. He had been jerking her around for far too long now. If he could have his way he would take her far away from here and marry her, and just...be with her forever. But reality was far too cruel to let that happen.

As he drove he felt his mind drift as much as the water in front of him did. In his head he once more saw Elena dying in his arms and him being unable to save her. Nate shut his eyes tightly and shook his head to free himself of these thoughts. He couldn't let her die.

Out on deck Elena rested her arms on the rails and felt her mind drift as well. She had known Nate long enough to know when he was hiding something and sensed something was going on with him. Every time he would break down and give in to her, seconds later he would pull away and become cold. It wasn't like him. She remembered that he began to act strangely the morning after she had removed the bullet from his side.

What had happened that night to change his demeanor?

She didn't have time to think of an answer because she felt the boat come to a halt. She looked around and saw that she and Nate had made it to Norway. She looked around, relieved to finally see some civilization as opposed to ruins.

A moment later she saw Nate coming in from the driving quarters, looking like he had something serious on his mind.

She ran up to him. "Looks like we made it." She said.

"Yeah..." Nate answered glumly. "Looks like we did."

Elena sighed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, Nate, I've hit my limit here. What the hell is going on with you?" she asked firmly. She was sick of asking herself questions she knew he could answer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He answered, looking away from her.

"No." She said, turning his face back to her. "Look at me." she demanded. "Why are you acting this way?"

Nate considered for a moment telling her the truth, but he felt his mind pound again with memories of her death. "Elena, don't do this." he told her, walking past her.

"Do what?" she asked. "All I want is for you to tell me the truth." she went on.

"Elena...please." he begged her, now feeling like he had a migraine that wasn't easing off. He placed a palm against one of his temples.

"Just tell me what happened between now and the night you were shot." she told him, her voice growing louder.

Nate couldn't even answer at this point. It felt like someone had let off dynamite in his head. Seeing her die, his screaming while holding her corpse. It was all like it was unfolding right in front of him. He let out a pained grunt and staggered a little, the pain now blinding.

"Tell me!" Elena screamed. Unaware of what he was feeling.

Nate growled softly to himself. He couldn't take the worry of her death anymore. So he exploded. "I've moved on!" he shouted at her, turning to face her.

Elena paused for a moment. "What?" she asked in a stunned voice. This was the last thing she had expected to hear from him.

"I'm over us. I'm over...you and me. We just don't...work anymore." he told her. With each word he spoke he felt his heart ache.

"How...how long have you felt this way?" She asked, her voice beginning to break.

Nate shook his head slightly. "I don't know. A while." he lied.

"So, this is really how you feel?" she said.

Nate nodded. "Yes." he said. "And I think...it's time you moved on too."

Elena swallowed hard and nodded her head slowly. "I'll do that." she said, turning around and running off the boat to the dock. She wanted to get lost in the city.

"Elena..." he began to call out to her but his words failed to reach her. He could tell when she ran off that she was crying. It felt like when he had broken her heart on their wedding day all over again. Nate cursed himself and kicked a metal bucket that was lying on the boat, denting it badly.

Lying to her seemed like the only way to keep her safe. But one thought rang through his mind as he watched her fade from view...

Did I do the right thing?


	17. Chapter 17 - Taken

**-17-**

**Taken**

Elena ran until her chest was burning. She stopped and brought her hands to her knees to catch her breath. She fought to regain her stamina and her thoughts. Her mind was going a million miles a minute. What was going on? Why was all of this happening? Wiping tears from her eyes she looked around. She wanted to find somewhere to be alone. She didn't want to look Nate in the eye should he found her. All she could think of was everything they had been though and how that could of possibly led them to where they were now.

Her mind went to the memory of when she and Nate were in the church together, before she had removed the bullet for him.

"_Nate, it'll be alright. I can do this. You just have to trust me."she said gently, trying to covey she really could do this._

_With those words his eyes looked deep into hers. "I'd trust you with my life." he said weakly._

From there, her thoughts then went to the kisses they had shared. In the church and on the boat. The way he kissed her...it was just heartfelt. It wasn't that of a brief moment of lust. It meant something...or at least she thought it did.

"_I've moved on!" she heard him yell again in her mind._

"_What?" she asked in pure shock._

"_I'm over us. I'm over...you and me. We just don't...work anymore."he said, shifting his gaze away from her._

Thinking back on this, Elena felt the tears well again in her eyes. All of these extreme mood chances didn't make a damn bit of sense to her. She took the ring from her blouse and looked at it. Looking at it, however hurt her heart, so she took her beaked clip and pinned her hair back up, tucking the ring in her hair so she didn't have to look at it. She didn't want to make sense of this. She didn't want to become hysterical in front of all of Norway. She looked up to see a sign for a hotel. She finally saw one, _The Sleeping Lion._ This was good enough for her, so she went inside.

She went through the revolving doors and to the front desk. She only hoped that the desk agent spoke a lick of English. "One room, please." she said sadly. No one else was in the hotel. She chalked it up to it getting late.

"Of course." the agent replied in a strange voice.

Upon hearing how odd he sounded, Elena looked up to look at him. She peered at his face for a moment, trying to place him. She knew she had seen this man somewhere before.

Her eyes widened when she realized where she knew him from. It was one of Adelle's goons that worked alongside Vergil—Rhodes.

Elena let out a gasp and turned to run away out the door, but another guard was standing there and grabbed her, putting a cloth of chloroform over her nose and mouth. She struggled for a moment before her body completely went limp and unconscious.

XXX

Once the sun had set and he knew he wouldn't be easily seen, Nate began to scope out the city to see if he could find Sully, Chloe, Adelle...anything. The streets were darkened, which made it simpler for him to navigate. On the end of the block, he came across a phone-booth. He figured he would try and call Chloe, that is if she didn't break her current cell phone like she did to the other five hundred ones she'd had.

Nate ran to the booth and shut the door behind him. He dialed Chloe's number as fast as he could. All he could hear was a busy signal. He called a few more times and got the same result.

"Damn it!" he cursed, slamming the phone hard on the hook. He rested his head on his arm and sighed. He brought his eyes to the ring he had on his finger, staring at it. All he could think of was all the pain he'd made her feel over the past year. In this moment, he felt that letting her go was the right thing for him to do. For the both of them, no matter how much it hurt. Like he had told Sully, he'd rather Elena be sad for a while than dead.

From the booth, he saw a shadowy figure move from between the buildings of the city. He thought for sure it was one of Adelle's thugs. He took the gun from his pocket that he had earlier. He had hoped to use it as a bargaining chip because it was useless now, seeing how it was out of ammo. But the enemy didn't need to know that.

As he exited the booth, he crept his way closer. Using shadows and the buildings to conceal himself. Around the corner, he saw the figure standing there with a weapon, his back to Nate. Then, in one swift motion he ran up behind him and help the gun against his head.

"Drop the gun." Nate warned him, speaking in a firm voice.

The man didn't resist, he dropped his weapon to the ground and threw his hands up. "Whoa, whoa,whoa, chill man!" the man said quickly, not wanting a bullet pumped into his brain. "I dropped it!"

Nate looked around when he heard people running up behind him. He had no idea who the hell he had grabbed, but it was someone with backup.

"Hey!" A voice yelled, and out ran Chloe and Sully. Aiming their guns to see who had a hold of their friend.

"Nate?" Chloe and Sully said in unison, lowering their weapons.

Nate smiled and loosened his grip on his captive. "Guys?"he said happily. Next thing he knew he was being thrown to the ground and pinned there.

Chloe ran up to the two of them to break it up. "Calm down, Vergil, it's Nate." she said.

Vergil froze and looked at Nate in the face. He felt like a real idiot...as he usually did. He laughed nervously and helped Nate stand. "Oh...uh, hey man. Sorry about that."Once he was up he patted Nate on the shoulder.

"Son of a bitch..." Nate cursed, dusting himself off. He had never actually seen Vergil's face before.

"I can't believe you're really all right!" Chloe said in a cheerful voice, running over to hug him.

"I got to say, Kid, I really thought you were done for this time." Sully said, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

"No, I've managed to stay alive." Nate told them. "I'm just glad I was able to meet up with you guys. I tried to call your phone."he told them.

"Uh...yeeeah, that would be my bad, you see, I used all of Chloe's minutes calling these sexy girly lines."Vergil interjected with a laugh.

Chloe just sighed. "Nate, this would be Vergil." she said, dreading that she had to introduce such a dunce to someone.

Nate looked over to him with distaste. "Yeah...we've met." he said, still feeling it from when Vergil had dropped him.

"Well, maybe next time you meet someone don't pull a gun out on them." Vergil defended himself.

Nate held up the gun and exposed the barrel. "It's empty, genius." he told him, tossing the gun away to the side.

"Nate, where's Elena?" Sully asked. "I thought she was with you."he looked around to see if she was anywhere to be found.

Nate shook his head. "Elena isn't with me. We we're...separated."he told him. "But don't worry, she's okay, or at least she was when we parted."

"What happened? Did you say something stupid?" Vergil asked, shaking his head in disapproval.

"No, that's really more your department, Vergil." Chloe said. "Nate, what really happened? And...are you all right? I mean, how are you even still standing?" she asked, seeing that his shirt was covered in blood from before.

Nate looked down and placed a hand on his wound. "Elena...she...got the bullet out for me. Stayed with me through the night and made sure I didn't bleed to death." he explained. "She really saved me."

"You look like you almost DID bleed to death." Sully said, pointing to his shirt. "But all the same, if she was the one who saved you, then why isn't she with you right now?" he asked.

Nate just stood there, frustrated for a moment before he answered. "Let's just say Vergil's right. I said something stupid. Let's just leave it at that."he told them, hoping they would let the matter rest.

Chloe looked over to Vergil to see him smiling at the fact he was right. What has happened to the world that he would be correct in a matter?

"Look, do either of you have a gun I can use?" Nate asked, looking to them.

Sully pulled a gun from his holster and handed it to Nate. "Here, take my Wes." he said, handing it to him. His reflection on his and Nate's past earlier made him want to hand it over.

Nate smiled at him, remembering from when he was nineteen. "Thanks, Sully."

After a moment, Chloe's phone began to ring. This surprised all of them because they figured that Vergil really had used all her minutes doing...you know, what he said he was doing.

"Chloe took her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. Her face looked puzzled. "It's all zeroes." she said in confusion.

Nate walked over to her. "Here, give it to me." he said, taking the phone from Chloe. He flipped the phone open but didn't say anything. But he didn't need to, because a voice came over the line anyways.

"I was hoping you would answer. Mr. Drake." a woman's voice said. How did this person know that he answered the phone when he didn't say a word? Nate still remained silent, stunned. "Yes, it's better we do this without any words. Your words our last conversation seemed to get you in quite the bind."

It was none other than Adelle herself.

"I'll keep this brief." Adelle said. "I have your wife."

Nate narrowed his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about?"he asked her.

"Ooh, that's right. You two never married did you? I have your...whatever it is she is to you. I don't really give a damn about the details. But if you want her alive long enough to ever marry her, you'll do what I say." Adelle warned him.

"You're full of shit."he said angrily. "You don't have her."

"Really?" Adelle laughed. "You want to not believe me again? Very well. Although let me just say, your blood all over her shirt is quite the fashion statement."

This told Nate that he really did have her. Last time she had kidnapped Elena her shirt was clean. The only way Adelle would have known his blood was all over her was if she had her right in that moment.

"What is it you want, Adelle?" he asked in an infuriated voice. He thought she had everything she wanted from him, given that she nearly killed him back in the church in Italy.

Hearing that Nate was talking to Adelle made Sully, Chloe and Vergil all exchange nervous glances.

"I want the other ring—the ring that goes with this one." she ordered.

Nate fell silent for a moment. He didn't have the other ring. Last he saw it was sinking in quicksand with Marlowe. "I don't have it." he told her.

"Pity...looks like Elena needs some of her own blood to match yours." Adelle began to say.

"I don't have it, but I know where it is." he heard himself lie. He had hoped this farce would be enough to buy him a little time, at least until he could think of a plan to save Elena.

"Hmmm." Adelle said though the phone, he could tell that he had piqued her curiosity. "Bring it to me." she ordered.

"Where the hell are you?" he asked, losing his patience.

"The museum where you marked the location of the statue of your 'ancestor' Sir Francis Drake. If you help me...I'll give you what you want." she said in the hideous voice she had.

"Fine." Nate said, flipping the phone closed. He couldn't believe it, once again Elena was in danger because of him.

"What the hell was that all about?" Chloe asked, dumbfounded by the situation.

Nate ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "We're going after Elena..." he trailed off. "And Vergil is going to be the decoy." he said. He knew that Adelle still trusted Vergil and she thought he was still working for her.

Vergil gulped and his voice was shaky. "Me?" he said nervously, pointing to himself. He just sighed, "Son of a bitch..."


	18. Chapter 18 - Trust Me

**-18-**

**Trust Me**

Nate and Vergil stood on the rooftop of the museum Adelle told them to meet her. The glass skylights made it easy for them to see inside. They saw Adelle standing with a gun in tow, guards on every side of her and Elena tied to a chair in the middle of the room. She wasn't moving or struggle to break free.

"Damn it." Nate cursed as he peered into the room. "She must be unconscious." he said.

"Let's hope it's not anything worse..." Vergil added.

Nate glared at him angrily. "Just shut up, okay? She's fine." he said. "She's got to be fine." he said lowly to himself.

"You're right." Vergil answered. "I'm sorry."

Nate and Vergil had their guns out and clicked to the ready. "Okay, do you remember what you have to do?" he asked the...not so dependable ally.

Vergil nodded. "Yes. Of course."

"Good." Nate said with relief. "Sully and Chloe have already gone ahead to clear out the guards in the other rooms of the museum. You go down there and distract Adelle while I rescue Elena. Don't worry about the soldiers—I can handle them." he explained, screwing a silencer onto his gun. "Just make sure Adelle, _doesn't _know I'm here. If she does, we can kiss Elena and not to mention ourselves, goodbye."

"Yeah, I got it." Vergil responded. "I won't make us target practice today. Don't worry." he assured him, standing and preparing to climb down the fire escape. "Just give me two minutes before you enter in the rafters."

"Got it." Nate answered, calling out to Vergil before he began to descend down the ladder. "And Vergil...don't make me regret trusting you."

Vergil just smiled back at him. "Not in a million years." And just like that, he was gone. Nate felt a pang of worry hit him. He knew that Sully and Chloe trusted him, but he hadn't been around him that long. Granted, he freed Elena once before and helped to save his life, but putting someone he loved so much's life in the hands of someone he didn't really trust worried him.

He looked back down through the skylight and placed his hand on the glass. "Hang on, Elena." he said softly.

Down inside the museum, Elena was finally starting to come to. She squinted her eyes as a bright light greeted her. She wasn't really sure where she was or how she had gotten there, but it all came rushing back to her when she saw Adelle pacing in front of her.

"Well, well, well...the non-wife awakes." Adelle smiled, twirling her gun in her fingers. "Have a nice nap, dear?"

Elena had reached then end of her rope with everything. "Shut up, okay?" she said.

Adelle stopped mid-step and looked over to her. "I'm sorry?" she said in shock. She was used to people cowering at the sight of her. "You want to repeat that?"

Elena exhaled sharply and spoke again. "Shut. Up." she said more forcefully. "You must be older than you look because clearly you're going deaf." The guards all were shocked as well at the mouth their captive had suddenly got on her.

Adelle laughed, maybe this Elena wasn't so weak after all. "Wow. Breaking up with someone apparently gives you a death wish." she said.

"No, I'm just sick of your bullshit theatrics." Elena snapped back. "You want to kill me? Kill me. But Nate wouldn't help someone who killed someone he cares about."

Adelle turned to her and smirked. "But he doesn't care about you." she answered, she'd never let Elena get one over on her. "If he did don't you think he would of married you?"

Elena grew silent, the knife in her heart twisting harder and harder.

"Or at the very least told you he loves you?" Adelle added.

Elena froze for a moment and thought back. She had always felt like Nate had loved her over the years but she never once remembered hearing him say it. She wracked her brain trying to think of one instance where he said the words. She couldn't.

Adelle loved the fact that she had gotten to her. "Ooh, struck a nerve there didn't I?" she said coldly. "This just proves he doesn't give a damn about you." With that she walked over to Elena and got into her face. "So killing you wouldn't hurt him but...what would killing him do to you?" she whispered into her ear in a hiss.

Elena's eyes just widened but before she could speak a voice came through the room.

"Miss me?" Vergil said, walking into the room AK in hand. He looked around to see the greeting he would get. All of the guards cocked their guns and aimed them at him. "Guess not." he said, throwing his AK into the holster behind him and throwing his hands up.

Adelle stormed up to him. "Where the hell have you been?" she asked angrily.

"Well..." Vergil began, "You _did_ leave me for dead back in Italy in a crumbling church with no way to get around so that's 'where the hell I've been'."

Adelle pointed her gun at his head and spoke through her teeth. "Then how did you get here?"

"Hitched a ride on a boat I stole." he answered. "Can this game of 20 questions be over now? I came back to help you for christsakes."

Adelle sighed in frustration. "You'd better not be trying to pull one over on me." she said, walking back over to Elena, Vergil trailing behind. "I was just getting ready to search our little girly guest. Join me, won't you?"

"Of course." Vergil replied. Once he was standing behind Elena, he saw a faint glint come from her hair. "Oh my God..." he said very softly to himself. "Elena has had the ring all along. The hell...?" he thought, trying to think of why she would have the artifact they had been chasing this whole time. He had to make sure Adelle didn't see it. Above he saw Nate sliding in through the rooftop. So he did the only thing he knew would distract her. "Up there!" he yelled, pulling out his gun and aiming it at the rafters.

Adelle and all of the guards turned their gaze...and weapons up there to him.

Nate raised his arms in surrender. "God damn it." he cursed to himself. He then sprinted to a beam across the room to try and make an escape, but Adelle shot the beam with her Wes and it crumbled and fell. With the beams collapsing, Nate crashed hard onto the floor with it. Two guards booked over to him and grabbed his arms.

Nate just glared over at Vergil with hateful eyes. He knew he couldn't trust him. "You son of a bitch." he muttered. He watched Adelle sidle over to him. "If it isn't the lovely lady of the hour."

"Mr. Drake..." Adelle said with a tsk. "When will you ever learn?" she said, hitting Nate hard across the head, knocking him out cold. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Elena's face. He had the peace of mind of knowing she was alive.

"Nate!" he heard Elena call out to him.


	19. Chapter 19 - Incentive to Cooperate

**-19-**

**Incentive to Cooperate**

Nate awoke to the feeling of something pricking his neck. When he finally found the strength to open his eyes, he saw Rhodes taking a step away from him with an empty syringe. Everything around him was in blurs at first. His neck tingled slightly from the shot he had just received.

He looked from the needle then to the guard. "What the hell?" he said, wondering what the hell they had just injected him with. "What did you just do to me?" he asked, knowing he wouldn't get an answer. Needless to say, he didn't. He didn't right off feel any effects from whatever they had injected into him, but anything they had couldn't of been good.

From the shadows he saw Adelle emerge. "Rise and shine, Mr. Drake." she spoke slyly. "We've been waiting for you to awaken for some time now." she added. She was dressed in her same severe suit, her eyes showing how truly evil she really was.

Nate just scoffed, trying to shake off his wooziness. "Well, maybe you should consider that before you knock someone over the head unconscious." he said.

"You are in no position to be a smart ass, Mr. Drake." Adelle retaliated. With a snap of her fingers, bright floodlights lit up all around the room. Artifacts of all sorts were hung and displayed all over the museum. Nate's eyes immediately went to the bust of Sir Francis Drake, the statue that he had sought for so long. Even though he was confined to a chair, he couldn't help but be in awe of the work of art. Adelle walked slowly over to the statue and ran her fingers over it. "Do you see this, Mr. Drake? Do you know what your eyes are gazing upon right now? How old this stonework is, the power it holds?" she asked, in awe of the bust herself.

"Yeah, it's great." he answered in a huffed voice. "Until power hungry killers like you find it and use it to 'rule the world' or whatever it is you're after." he said.

"Do we really want to play the, 'Whose a bigger killer?' game right now?" she asked, giving Nate a look. "We're both killers, but the difference between you and me is I have power beneath my killing. I have respect." she told him.

"Respect of two bit thugs who only listen to you because they're afraid you'll put a bullet in their head." Nate replied, getting dirty glances from all of the guards in the room. He shot Vergil a glance, his comment directed right at him.

Adelle stopped for a moment and stepped away from the statue. "Speaking of bullets in the head..." she said, snapping her finger once more, Vergil leaving the room briefly.

"Snap a finger and the whole world comes running." Nate said gruffly, shaking his head.

As his words ceased, Vergil came back into the room carrying Elena, tied to a chair, duct tape over her mouth to silence her. Vergil placed the chair across from Nate so he and Elena could see each other face to face. Nate's face went immediately to that of concern and fear.

"Not so funny now is it, Mr. Drake?" Adelle smirked, walking over to the two of them. She pulled a gun from her holster and held it against Elena's head. "Even less so now."

Nate felt panic fill his body. "No...please don't hurt her." he pleaded. Adelle was right, things weren't so funny anymore.

"Tell me where the other ring is and I won't." Adelle said coldly, the barrel still against Elena's head. Her muffled cries fill the ears of everyone in the room.

"I don't know. I really don't." Nate told her, feeling even more fear at this point.

"You're lying." Adelle said simply, clicking the gun to get ready to fire.

"No!" Nate screamed at her. "You can't hurt her!" He had never felt more useless than he did right now. Elena was only a few feet in front of him and he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Not a thing but watch.

"Then tell me where the ring is!" She hollered back at him. The look in her eyes cold and heartless, capable of doing anything.

Nate let out s growl to himself, he didn't know what to do. He really didn't know where the ring was, but he had told Adelle that he did. Anything he said now would sound like a bald-faced lie. "I can't tell you what I don't know!"

Adelle pressed the gun harder against Elena's head. "You have five seconds or I kill her right in front of you!" she yelled. Nate was silent for a moment, thinking of anything to get Elena out of this. "Five!" she began to count.

"I don't know, Adelle." Nate told her as serious as he could.

"Four!" She continued.

"Please don't do this!" he pleaded.

"Three!"

"I'll do whatever I can to help you find it." Nate said, grasping at straws at this point.

"Two!"

"Please don't hurt her..." Nate whimpered softly.

"One." Adelle concluded. A brief moment of silence filled the room before a gunshot filled the empty air. She had done it. Fired a bullet right into Elena's head right in front of Nate. Her body lay limp in the chair in front of him, her eyes staring blankly ahead.

"No..." Nate cried. He shook his head side to side. "NO!" he roared loudly. He bucked back and forth in his chair, nearly breaking it. He felt his eyes sting with tears. He just sat there screaming for a while, Adelle and her guards eating up every moment of it. "Elena...I loved you..." he said sadly to himself, fighting back tears as hard as he could.

Adelle just let out a laugh. "Wow, that was very refreshing."

Nate, enraged, looked up at her. "I swear to God I'm going to kill you."

Adelle strutted up to him and got in his face. "Are you sure about that?" she hissed. Nate lurched at her but couldn't reach her given he was still tightly tied to a chair. She walked over to Elena and reached on to her shirt.

"Don't you touch her!" Nate screamed at the top of his lungs at her. "Get your hands off her!" Vergil couldn't help but look like he felt pangs of guilt. He didn't like this—any of it.

Adelle turned around and dangled the necklace between her fingers. The person in the chair now resembling one of Adelle's female soldiers. What had happened? Elena was in the chair seconds ago.

Nate panted as he came down from his outburst. "...What?" he said breathlessly.

Adelle shook her head and laughed once more. "Haven't you figured out this game yet? I thought you were a smart one." she smirked. With yet another snap of her fingers, Vergil exited and entered the room again. This time he had the real Elena tied to a chair. Her mouth wasn't taped.

"Nate..." she said to him, looking into his eyes.

Nate still felt himself being silent. He couldn't believe all that had transpired in the past few minutes. Adelle used one of her guards to teach him a lesson, to see how much he knew. Having the necklace made it easy for her to make one of her female guards resemble Elena. The real Elena he loved was sitting right in front of him now.

"Elena...you're alive..." he said in disbelief. He felt himself just staring at her face, making sure it was the real her this time. It was.

Elena nodded. "Yeah...they did the same thing to me...with you." she said teary-eyed. "They...made me think that...they had killed you."

"I'm so sorry." he said to her. He wanted to say more, but that was all he could think at the moment.

Elena wanted to answer him, but the words wouldn't come.

Adelle soon broke their reunion. "Now that I have you're attention, I trust you will listen to me know, knowing what the stakes are." she shot a look to the both of them. "I take it I have your cooperation?" she asked.

Nate and Elena both shot one another a concerned look. Adelle had them, they didn't have any means of escape, or any useful information. They were stuck.


	20. Chapter 20 - Infected

**-20-**

**Infected**

Nate found himself just staring at Elena's face, like he was trying to burn her image into his mind forever. Whether it was just a hoax or in a false reality, Nate had seen Elena die twice now, and he never want to see it again. Seeing her helplessly tied to that chair made him feel enraged. There was nothing he could do...nothing he could do right _now_ but he was going to find a way to save her. He wasn't going to make her death become true.

As he stared at her face he felt a wave a light-headedness rush over him. For a brief moment his body felt like it was on fire. But it soon ended as quickly as it came. After taking a moment to gather himself, he spoke to Elena.

"Elena...did these guys...inject you with anything?" he asked her, fearing her answer. He knew his feeling ill was from whatever the hell they had pumped into him and it wasn't good...whatever it was.

Elena shook her head. "No...did they do that to you?" she asked.

Adelle came in between them and broke their conversation. "Rhodes, take Elena out of here and Vergil, tighten Mr. Drake's restraints." she ordered. Doing what he was told, Rhodes grabbed Elena's chair and began to carry her out of the room.

Nate shook his head desperately back and forth, he didn't want her out of his sight. "Adelle...please...please don't hurt her." he pleaded.

Adelle just let out a wicked laugh. "This is all too rich. Nothing I love more than to see someone beg." she loved every moment of this. "Vergil, restraints—now." she barked at him. With that she made her way back over to the statue and gazed upon it's potential power.

Vergil nodded his head and walked over to Nate. He went behind him and began to mess with the ropes on Nate's chair. "Pretend I'm hurting you." he said quickly in a mere whisper.

Nate narrowed his eyes. "What?" he asked in confusion.

Vergil just sighed and flicked Nate on the head. "Ow!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, like that." Vergil answered. "Can't have Adelle knowing anything she doesn't need to know."

"Just cut the bullshit, Vergil. I don't trust you." Nate answered.

Vergil looked ahead to make sure Adelle was still mesmerized by the statue—she was. "Maybe this will help." he said, untying Nate's ropes that confined his arms. "Wait for the right moment to break free, and use this." he said lowly, slipping a 9mm into his jeans.

This was the last thing Nate had expected. "Why are you doing this?" he asked.

"Like I told you, you can trust me. I'm done being one of the bad guys." he told him.

"Then why did you throw me under he bus, Vergil?" Nate asked him firmly.

"Because Elena has the ring Adelle is looking for. It's pinned into her hair. Adelle was about to search her and find it. I had to get her to focus on you and forget about searching her. If she gets that ring, it's all over." he said.

"Why does she have it?" Nate asked him. He had no idea why Elena had something of such importance.

"I don't think she knows what she has, or she would have given it up to save you." Vergil said, standing up. "Brace yourself." he warned Nate and punched him across the face.

"Goddamnit!" Nate cursed loudly.

"Sorry!" Vergil mouthed. He and Nate both knew he had to make it look realistic, no matter how much it smarted. He walked over to Adelle and began to talk to her, making sure her back was to Nate. Nate watched to make sure she didn't turn around. When he saw the coast was clear he slid slowly out of the ropes and made his way for the door to where Elena was being held. All he had to do now was take out Rhodes and free Elena. He pulled out the gun that Vergil had slipped him and he was delighted to see that it conveniently had a silencer on it.

Rhodes and Elena were the only ones in the room besides himself. He saw that a vase was on the table next to him. He picked it up and threw it across the room to get his attention. "Arrivederci, dipshit." he said smoothly and pulled the trigger.

Elena's eyes widened when she saw his face. He ran to her and untied her from the chair. Once she was out he pulled her into him and hugged her as hard as he could. "Are you okay?" he asked, stroking her hair.

"I'm fine...are you?" she asked, looking over him.

Nate nodded hesitantly. "Yeah I...ugh!" He winced, grabbing onto her it was the same blazing pain he had earlier.

"What, what is it?" She asked, steadying him. Nate was silent and just looked at her. It was then that it hit Elena. "You asked me earlier if they had injected me with something...they did to you...didn't they?" she asked.

Nate looked at her sadly. "Yes." he told her honestly.

Elena grabbed her head in fury. "Shit!" she yelled.

"Elena, Elena I will be fine, all right? I just have to get you out of here. I want to keep you safe." he assured her. "Look, I'm better." he said, standing up straighter. "Just a bad spell. Let's get going." Nate walked over to Rhode's corpse and pulled his .45 from his hand and handed it to Elena. "Here. Use this. It's loaded."

He saw that she had nodded in response but was very uneasy about all of this. "Hey," he said, taking her cheek softly in the palm of his hand, "it's all going to be all right. I promise." he said softly. Elena just looked at him for a moment, it was like in the church, they'd get through anything together.

"Just...make it out of here with me. Promise me _that_." she asked of him.

"I...promise, Elena." he told her. He kissed her gently on the lips and pressed his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes tightly, hoping he would be able to keep the promises he'd made. He went to stroke her hair again and felt the ring in it. He plucked it from her hair.

She looked at the ring in his hand. "I'd forgotten I'd put that there." she said.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked her. "It's the ring that Adelle is after." he told her. "Where did you get this?"

Elena looked confused for a moment before she answered. "That's the ring? I had no idea..." she answered.

"How in the world do you have this, I saw it sink with Marlowe years ago." he said to her.

Elena sighed. "Nate, I swear I will tell you everything you want to know about that when we get out of this. It's a...long story. You're just going to have to trust me." she said.

"You already know I do." he said, putting the ring into his pocket. "I'll hang onto this, it's too dangerous for you to be more involved than you already are."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Nate instructed Elena to hide in the corner with her gun ready, and with his ready as well he slowly opened the door. In the door frame was Vergil, with heavy bloodstains on his chest.

"Shit!" Nate cussed, grabbing onto Vergil, stopping him from hitting the floor. He placed him gently on the ground.

"Oh God..." Elena said in a weak voice.

"Hey, man you're going to be okay, all right? You're going to be just fine." Nate said in as calm a voice as he could muster. "Elena rip me off a piece of Rhode's suit there." he told her.

"I'm sorry...I tried to hold her off as best I could but she..." Vergil began to speak but Nate hushed him.

"Don't worry about that right now." He answered, grabbing the cloth from Elena. He looked deep into the wound to see it was a gunshot wound that went all the way through. "Okay partner you're going to be okay? You just need to stay with me." he said, wrapping the cloth hard around his wound to stop the bleeding.

"Tell Chloe I'm sorry." he said weakly.

"You'll be able to tell her that yourself, you just have to be strong, all right?" Nate told him, tying off the cloth.

"I just...wish I could see her face..." Vergil said softly before his body collapsed.

Elena put her hands over her face. "Oh, Nate..."

Nate grabbed his wrist to see if he could feel a pulse. "It's okay. He's alive. Just passed out." he said with a sigh of relief himself.

Elena immediately felt her body ease. "Thank God." she said exhaling.

Nate stood up and cocked his gun. "Okay, I'm going to end this." he told her. "You stay with Vergil and take care of him."

"Wait!" Elena shouted, running over to him to stop him. "You saw what she just did to him and you're not exactly in great condition yourself." she warned him.

"I'm not going to let her hurt anyone else, Elena." He said to her. "Sully and Chloe should be here any minute. I'll stall her."

Elena shook her head. "Please don't do this..." she said in a pleading voice.

Nate just grabbed her once more and kissed her. "I have to." he told her. He felt her grab him tighter, like she never wanted to let him go.

"You promised me." She said with her head against his chest.

Nate just closed his eyes hard, patting her head against his chest. "And I intend to keep that promise." he said. With that he pulled away from her and began to leave the room. Before he was out he stopped for a moment. "I love you, Elena." he said, then ran out of the room before she could answer.

She just stood there stunned for a moment. "I love you too..." she said softly.


	21. Chapter 21 - Destruction & Harmony

**-21-**

**Destruction & Harmony**

Nate ran out the the main area where Adelle was last seen. He made sure he held his gun and ring close to him, they were his only means of getting Elena out of this mess. Her face...that's what kept him going. He may have failed to protect her in the past but he was never going to let that happen again. All of this made clear his feelings for her. He was done hiding, done playing games.

Nate saw Adelle standing next to the statue, still looking at it like it was a deity, his presence not seeming to faze her. "You think you've won don't you Mr. Drake?" she asked in a low, foreboding voice. "Killed all my men, even made some of them turn against me, and still you have the balls to confront me?"

Nate aimed his weapon at Adelle. "I want to put an end to your reign of terror." he told her, walking closer. "You've lost, Adelle."

Adelle just shook her head and laughed to herself. "That's where you're wrong." she said, her eyes glowing a bright red, turning to him. "I don't lose."

Nate felt his body cripple in pain, like the blazing feeling he had before. He let out a painful cry and fell to the ground, his gun clattering beside him. The pain was blinding, like someone was shoving needles throughout his body and set him on fire. He couldn't move, he felt paralyzed.

Adelle walked over to him and knelt beside his writhing body. She held her hand up wearing the black ring. The writing on it glowing red like her eyes. "No one told you did they?" she said in a deeper, more evil voice.

All Nate could do was fight the urge to scream and looked up at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You thought all this ring could do was shapeshift? What good would that do anyone after a year, two?" She asked, grabbing his hand tightly and taking the ring he had from it. "No, it grants the one who wears it power, power like your witnessing right now. And this ring," she began, looking at it and smiling, "this ring the key to making me invulnerable. With power and invulnerability, who would be able to stop me!?" she yelled in a maniacal voice.

"Drop the ring!" A familiar voice called out from a distance. And then, out from the darkness came Sully holding his Wes. "I'm serious." he warned her. "You're not invulnerable _yet_."

Nate squinted through his blurs and smiled when he saw him. "Sully..." he said wealkly.

"Do as the man says!" Another voice called out, and on the other side of the room was Chloe holding a gun as well.

"It appears I'm at a stalemate here." Adelle said, not seeming at all worried that she had two guns on her.

"Chloe, you go check out that room over there, I got this." Sully instructed Chloe as he pulled out another gun from his holster.

As Chloe began to nod in response, Adelle spoke up. "Yes, Ms. Frazer go to your little boyfriend, maybe you two can squeeze in one last fuck." she grinned.

Chloe paused for a moment and lowered her gun. "What?" she said in horror.

"Chloe..." Nate said in a strained voice. "He's all right, just go."

Without hesitation, Chloe ran to see if her man really was all right. She hoped with all her heart that he was.

Adelle sighed and flipped her hair. "You boys are all such trouble." she said, pulling out her Wes and pointing it at Sully.

"Just give me another reason to pull the trigger, Red, because I already have a hundred." Sully warned her.

"You want a reason, okay, I'll give you one." She hissed back, lowering the gun to aim it at Nate. "Throw away your guns or I will kill him right here, not that he's not half dead already." she laughed.

Nate panted to try and catch his breath. "Sully, don't do it. She'll just kill you anyways. Shoot her now!"

Sully looked at Adelle and then to Nate, he let out a hard sigh and dropped his guns to the floor, then kicked them away. "I'm sorry, Nate. I just can't do it."

Adelle looked pleased with herself. She walked over to Sully's two guns and kicked them further away from him, never taking her gun off of Nate. She made her way over to the statue with her two rings in hand. As soon as he had a moment, Sully ran over to Nate.

"You have to keep your eyes open, kid. Keep 'em open, all right?" Sully said, gently smacking his cheeks.

Over at the statue, Adelle took her two powerful rings and slid each one slowly onto the left and then right hand of Sir Francis Drake. "**Now**..." she said in an evil voice. "**The time has finally come for me to have everlasting power!**"

Once the two rings were on the statue, it began to illuminate in a bright light. The light went from the statue over to Adelle and she began to levitate as she absorbed the power. All Nate and Sully could do at the moment was watch all of this unfold before them.

After a few moments, the light ceased and Adelle returned to the ground. She balled a fist and the bright light crackled around her body like electricity. "**Now to try out this power!**" she growled, she turned and in one swift motion lept over to Sully and punched him hard. When the punch landed it sent him hurling across the room into a pillar that broke as he connected. The hot knocked him out cold.

"Sully!" Nate cried. He looked over to see Adelle right above him.

"**Sully can't save you now, Drake!**" she howled, any essence of human emotion long gone, her eyes now glowing the same color as the electricity surges around her. She grabbed Nate by the throat and lifted him from the ground. "**You've been a thorn in my side for far too long now and I want ****nothing more than to watch you die!**"

Nate struggled to break free of her grip, his feet kicking about. Choked sounds came from his mouth. It was no use, her strength was like that of the incredible Hulk. Just as he felt his consciousness slip away, he heard five loud gunshots and he was dropped onto the ground. He coughed and fought to get his breath back. He looked over to see who his savior was and saw Elena standing there with a smoking gun.

"Elena?" he said with relief.

"Step away from him, now!" Elena yelled to Adelle. Next to her stood Chole and Vergil, Chloe helping Vergil stand, but he was awake. He held his own gun at Adelle as well.

Adelle laughed at the bullets in her body. She took a deep breath and expelled the bullets all at once like it was nothing. "**You think your pathetic bullets can stop me!?"** she yelled, lurching at the three of them.

"Elena look out!" Nate screamed as he saw her darting at the woman he loved. He fought with every last bit of strength he had to scramble over to one of Sully's Wes guns he had kicked away before. He took it in his hands and aimed it in front of him—right at the statue of Sir Francis Drake. He fired every last bullet that was in the gun. Soon after the statue began to crumble and break.

The pain overtaking Nate's body was unbearable at this point. He let out a loud scream and crumpled the rest of the way to the ground.

Adelle snapped her head over to the statue in hysterics to see it breaking. "**No! What have you done!?**" she cried out, running over to the bust. The bright light shone over her and the statue both and the pair of them turned to dust, the two rings clinking to the ground.

Chloe, Vergil and Elena all looked in awe at what had just transpired. "Oh my God, he's done it...he's defeated her..." Chloe said.

Elena looked over to see Nate barely moving on the ground. "Oh God..." she said in worry as she darted over to him.

"We'll check on Victor, c'mon." Chloe said, aiding Vergil over to their friend, who was now moving. They were relieved to know that he was alive. Chloe made sure that Vergil was able to stand on his own for a moment before she extended a hand out to Sully.

"You okay, Old Man?" Vergil asked him with a smile.

"Goddamnit..." Sully grumbled, taking Chloe's hand. "Yeah, but my arm's busted. That bitch had one hell over a right hook." The three of them let out a small laugh, but all at once one thought hit them—Nate.

Elena got on her knees down to Nate and took him into her hands. "Hey, hey, hey!" She called out to him, petting his face. "Look at me, Nate look at me." she said to him, turning his face to her.

Nate's eye blinked a few times and then focused on her. "E-Elena..?" he said, breathing very shakily.

"Yes. I'm right here." She said in a soothing voice.

"You're safe?" He asked weakly.

Elena nodded at him. "Yes, I'm safe. We're all safe now, thanks to you. You did it, Nate. You got rid of Adelle." she told him.

Nate let out a groan and his body shook a little. "I just...wanted to keep you...safe..." he said.

"And you did." she said. She and Nate both knew what was coming.

Nate let out a few labored breaths before he spoke next. "I'm sorry...I didn't keep my...promise."

"Don't say that." Elena said shaking her head, "Please don't say that."

Nate swallowed hard and took Elena's cheek in his hand. "Listen to me, Elena. You're going to be fine. You have your...whole life ahead of you...all right?" he told her firmly.

Elena felt her eyes well with tears. "But I want it with you." she told him in a whimper.

Nate just winced and closed his eyes, as if he was trying to fight back tears of his own. "I'm sorry." He said again. He wanted nothing more than to spend his life with her always, but that wasn't going to happen. Even though he had killed Adelle and triumphed over her, to Elena, it was like she had still won.

Elena felt tears streaming from her eyes. Nate took his thumb and tried to wipe them away but they were coming down too fast. "Don't cry, Elena..." he said weakly. "Please...don't...cry..." As his words ceased, his arm went limp from her face and his eyes closed.

Elena just shook her head hard back and forth. "No..." she said through her tears. "No..."

Sully came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Elena..." he began to say.

Elena just jerked away. "No...don't console me. Don't console me because this isn't real!" she yelled. "Nate, wake up. Wake up!" she said, shaking his body. "You can't do this! Please!"

Sully felt her pain as well. He wanted to cry himself to be honest. But he needed to be strong right now. But the only family he had was gone, his son was gone.

"I'm sorry." Elena told Nate's still body. "I'm sorry I hated you all this time for our wedding. I wish I could take it all back. I don't care about that anymore! I know why you did it! You wanted to protect me! You wanted to protect yourself from feeling how I feel right now!" she cried. "Please, make this feeling go away, Nate!"

A moment later, Elena looked to the ground to see the silver ring she used to have. Nate's Sic Parvis Magna ring. She picked it up and looked at it. "This ring...I kept it for you." she said. "Back in Yemen a couple years ago, before you went into the desert, you came to my loft. I told you to get some sleep, when you did I swapped your ring with a fake. I knew Marlowe was after it, and I knew how much you cared for it. That's why I did it. And I..." she began to say and then began to sob. "I was going to give it back to you on our wedding day." she said in devastation.

Sully, Vergil and Chloe all looked at one another sadly. Chloe felt herself begin to cry as well. Vergil took her in his arms and hugged her. Although he hadn't known Nate long, he was saddened by all of this well.

Sully walked over to Nate and looked down at him. He wanted to say so much but his mouth had no words to speak.

Elena looked down to him and stroked his face. "You ran away before after you told me you loved me. I know why you did." she told him. "You were scared I didn't feel the same way. But I do." she said. She looked back to the ring and slid it on his finger. "I love you, Nate."

After she slid the ring on his hand, it began to illuminate like the other one had, but this ring glowed with a kind, golden light. The light over took Nate's body. His stomach where his gun wound was glowed harsh.

Elena looked at her friends to see if they knew what was going on. He gaze was brought back to Nate once the glowing faded. When she saw him now, his face looked back to normal, healthy again. A beat later, he let out a loud gasp and his eyes shot open, his body shooting to a sit up position.

"Nate?" Elena said in utter awe. She and the others all looking at him. Once it registered in her mind she grabbed him as hard as she could. "You're alive!" she cried in joy. She couldn't believe what was happening.

"Yeah..." Nate said himself in shock. " I guess I am." He looked on his hand to see the ring. "The ring..."

Sully looked at him happily "It revived you, Kid." he said, running over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"But how could something like that happen? Is it witchcraft or something?" Vergil asked. Looking to the others for answers.

Chloe stood there in thought like something had just struck her. " Nostos eirēnē..." she said lowly. "Return harmony home...that ring was the center of harmony and life whereas the other was the center of destruction and death."

"I can't believe it...it's a miracle." Elena said, a huge smile coming across her face.

Nate looked into her eyes lovingly. "I love you, Elena." he told her, the look in his eyes serious but loving.

Elena took a deep breath before she answered. "I love you, too, Nate." she said, finally able to tell him. Then the two embraced tightly, then kissed. It really was a miracle, Nate was brought back to life and Adelle was gone for good.

Things were looking up.


End file.
